"We must not fall into the terrible trap of thinking that because certain printed or manuscript materials have been photostated or photocopied or microfilmed, or digitized that we are relieved of our responsibility for preserving the original."
—Terry Belanger, retired founding director of Rare Book School, University of Virginia
During the past fiscal year, Special Collections added several significant volumes to its shelves. Among the more interesting are two important books in the history of nursing purchased through the generosity of the Friends of the TCU Library.
The first book is Louisa May Alcott's Hospital Sketches and Camp and Fireside Stories, in which Alcott describes, in fictionalized form, her experiences while serving as a nurse in a hospital in Georgetown (outside Washington DC) during the Civil War. Although she only served six weeks as she contracted typhoid fever, the sketches are significant in their depiction of nineteenth century nursing and in establishing Alcott's style which resulted eight years later in her classic, Little Women. The library's copy is the 1869 illustrated edition published by Roberts Brothers in Boston.
The second nursing title purchased is a first edition of Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing: What It Is and What It Is Not published in 1859. It was the first manual of its kind to outline general principles to be used by "ordinary women" in nursing the sick at home or in the world. Nightingale, however, never intended it to be a comprehensive guide by which to learn how to be a nurse, but to help in the practice of treating others by those responsible for their care. It stressed such principles as cleanliness, ventilation and observation. The volume helped to challenge practices of the day and help to reform nursing and the treatment of the sick. It is most significant as it was written by "the founder of modern nursing."
Another Special Collections acquisiton of significance is the first edition of the first English translation of Historia de la conquista de México, Antonio de Solís's historical account of the three years between the appointment of Cortés as commander of the invading Spanish forces and the fall of Mexico City, first published in Madrid in 1864. Translated by Thomas Townsend, this volume was published in London in 1724. The volume contains engraved plates and maps.