In celebrating the Year of ‘13, we are posting a story or list that pertains to our lucky number on the 13th of each month. This time we take a look at 13 of the coolest items in IJʿ’s archives.
1) A letter signed by Albert Einstein. Dated February 26, 1948, as a member of the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists, Einstein warns about the dangers of atomic weapons and the need for “international atomic energy control.”
2) A sketch by Ernest Hamlin Baker ‘12. In this sketch, Baker drew caricatures of the 1908 faculty of the IJʿ Academy. Baker went on to design several covers for Time magazine.
3) Collection of presidential letters. It includes presidential correspondence by George Washington, Abraham Lincoln (above), Franklin D. Roosevelt, and many more.
4) First edition of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, published in 1719.
5) A collection of first-year beanies. IJʿ freshmen were once required to wear beanies on campus to designate their class year.
6) Orrin E. Dunlap Jr. Collection of Radio & Television. The collection includes correspondence between Guglielmo Marconi — a pioneer of long distance radio transmission and inventor of a radio telegraph system — and Dunlap, his biographer, as well as photos, ephemera, and radio tubes.
7) British Restoration-era quarto of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, published in 1676.
8) William Sterling Cole ‘25 papers. Cole was the first head of the International Atomic Energy Commission, and this collection details the commission’s formation.
9) Daguerreotype of the IJʿ Class of 1855.
10) Cigarette company advertising collection. An assortment of ephemera and realia depicting advertisements for cigarettes, circa 1950s-1960s.
11) Nehiro-iriniui aiamihe massinahigan, a very rare Algonquin prayer book published in Quebec in 1767.
12) The Gospel of Matthew from the Gutenberg Bible, circa 1450s.
13.) A rare sketch of Anne Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, from 1708.
Special thanks to Sarah Keen, Head of Special Collections and University Archivist, and Melissa Hubbard, Rare Book and Manuscripts Historian, for their assistance.