{"id":525,"date":"2024-12-14T08:12:23","date_gmt":"2024-12-14T08:12:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/?p=525"},"modified":"2025-11-13T00:48:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T00:48:09","slug":"divine-songs-for-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/2024\/12\/14\/divine-songs-for-children\/","title":{"rendered":"Divine Songs for Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Divine Songs for Children<\/span><\/i> is a little mystery tucked within the Dickinson College Archives.\u00a0 Initially, the book appears ordinary and plain; it resides discreetly within a protective clamshell box.\u00a0 The box is designed to look<\/span>\"\" like a typical hardcover book, it has a spine and the edges (where the pages of a book would be visible) are set deeper in and covered.\u00a0 The boards are covered with orange-brown cloth.\u00a0 As I picked the box up and gazed upon it, I recognized the gold streaks that run horizontally across the cloth.\u00a0 The interwoven gold threads shimmer in the warm light of the archives.\u00a0 Running my hand over the cover I could feel the coarse texture of the fabric.\u00a0 It almost seemed like I could feel each individual thread.\u00a0 The front board of the box, its \u201ccover\u201d, is labeled with a copy of the copyright page.\u00a0 The sp<\/span>ine is labeled with the condensed title,<\/span> \u201c<\/span>Divine Songs<\/span><\/i>,\u201d the book’s publication year and location, Carlisle 1812, and the call number.\u00a0 From a quick glance at the camouflaged box, nothing hints at the little secret tucked within.<\/span><\/p>\n

Only upon opening the box did I realize it was not the book itself.\u00a0 To the probable annoyance of my peers, I expect I audibly gasped when inst<\/span>\"\"ead of pages I was greeted with the beautiful metallic marbling of the box\u2019s interior and a surprise palm-sized book tucked perfectly within.\u00a0 Underneath the marbled endpages, the same coarse-threaded cloth covers the inside.\u00a0 The marbling is the <\/span>same orange-brown tones, now with added silver, bronze, and gold pigments.\u00a0 In the warm light, the metallic tones shimmer terrifically.\u00a0 Now, I am finally facedwith the real <\/span>Divine Songs for Children<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 It is a small, unembellished blue book.\u00a0 Surrounded by the splendor of the box, you would expect to be let down by its simplicity, but I was thrilled.\u00a0 In comparison to the clamshell, <\/span>Divine Songs<\/span><\/i> seems tiny (it is less than half the size: the clamshell box is 21.8cm x 14.7cm x 2.6cm, <\/span>Divine Songs<\/span><\/i> is 10.25cm x 6.8cm x 0.2cm).\u00a0 It is bound without embellishment: the binding is made of the same paper as the inner pages, there are no boards or endpages, all sewn together with thread.\u00a0 The front and back cover have a single-color faded marbling design.\u00a0 The pages of the book do not feel brittle, as I expected from such an old book.\u00a0 The paper is soft and pliable.\u00a0 It is small, cradled in my hands, delicate and malleable.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is a frontispiece on the very first page; it is the only illustration in the book.\u00a0 The frontispiece i<\/span>\"\"s rectangular and off-center (the margins are not evenly spaced on all sides).\u00a0 It depicts three children standing across from a woman sitting in a chair.\u00a0 The illustration uses only black ink; it takes<\/span>\u00a0advantage of the negative space to create the children’s faces and their clothes.\u00a0 The copyright page follows.\u00a0 It credits the full title: <\/span>Divine Songs A<\/span><\/i>ttempted in Easy Language For the Use of Children<\/span><\/i> by Isaac Watts.\u00a0 This edition was published in Carlisle in 1812 by Archibald Loudon.\u00a0 There is n<\/span>o information about an ed<\/span>itor or any additional information about how this book came into print.\u00a0 Sprawled across both pages are handwritten words in script.\u00a0 It is not very legible, the ink has faded\"\" and bled.\u00a0 It very likely is a signature or a name and a date.\u00a0 The book is twenty-nine pages in total, including the copyright page.\u00a0 The Ten\u00a0Commandments, \u201cput into a short rhyme\u201d follow the final hymn.\u00a0 The book ends with a summary of the commandments, \u201cWith all thy soul love God above,\u00a0And as thyself thy neighbor love,\u201d and \u201cFINIS\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The margins are inconsistent throughout the book.\u00a0 The text is never perfectly centered, and the <\/span>direction it leans is inconsistent.\u00a0 On the first couple of pages of the book, the text nearly touches the bottom of the page; the upper margin is big, while the bottom margin is near nonexistent.\u00a0 By the end of the book, the text is more centered.\u00a0 The text on page 13 is printed on an angle.<\/p>\n

There are signs of wear throughout the book, but the most significant damage appears to be a water stain on the top left of the first page.\u00a0 Throughout the book, the paper is discolored and the edges are chipped.\u00a0 A couple of the pages appear to have burn damage (most noticeably pages 4 and 5).\u00a0 The chipped edges are most notable here and are a dark brown color.<\/span><\/p>\n

Who owned<\/span> Divine Songs<\/span><\/i>?\u00a0 Who brought it to the archives?\u00a0 After 200 years the book is still in good condition, so likely it was maintained.\u00a0 It was cared for and valued by someone.\u00a0 But by who?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, it is not known how this book found itself in the Archives of Dickinson College.\u00a0 On the inner margin of the 3rd page there is a \u201cDickinson\u201d stamp.\u00a0 The Dickinson College Archives used to use ink stamps, like the one in <\/span>Divine Songs<\/span><\/i>; however, their use was discontinued in \"\"1956.\u00a0 The \u201cDickinson\u201d stamp is most often accompanied by a secondary stamp, which indicates the book\u2019s inventory number: this stamp is missing from <\/span>Divine Songs<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Instead, the call number is written in pencil on the upper margin of the 2nd page.\u00a0 Either this book entered the archives after the use of these stamps was discontinued, or, more likely, it was decided <\/span>Divine Songs for Children<\/span><\/i> was too small and valuable for the second stamp.\u00a0 From 1927 until the end of the century, donations and acquisitions to the archives were handwritten in ledgers.\u00a0 Often the entries were vague and left out \u201cunremarkable\u201d titles.\u00a0 It would not have been feasible to handwrite everything acquired by the library, still, this unfortunately leaves many books in the archives without records.\u00a0 <\/span>Divine Songs<\/span><\/i> is not mentioned in these ledgers.\u00a0 Either it was received after 1927 and was not documented specifically or it was received before 1927, prior to the use of ledgers or records at all.\u00a0 We do not know how <\/span>Divine Songs for Children<\/span><\/i> got to the archives, or about its life before then.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Divine Songs for Children is a little mystery tucked within the Dickinson College Archives.\u00a0 Initially, the book appears ordinary and plain; it resides discreetly within a protective clamshell box.\u00a0 The box is designed to look like a typical hardcover book, it has a spine and the edges (where the pages of a book would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-material-description","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":704,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525\/revisions\/704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/historyofthebook2024\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}