Global U Office for Global Engagement

This story originally appeared on the Marriott Library Blog.

Did you know that you can schedule a time to visit the Rare Books Classroom and see treasures beyond your wildest imagination? First editions of Euclid and Galileo, a Hebrew scroll found in Spain and a leaf from the Gutenberg Bible are just a few examples of the more than 80,000 items housed in the Rare Books vault at the Marriott Library.  

But note – while these articles of human history are housed in a vault, that doesn’t mean they are locked away, out of reach. In fact, these books get around. Last year alone, the Rare Books department hosted 77 hands-on presentations, reaching more than 1,300 students, staff and community members.  

“The rare books experience emphasizes the importance of holding history in your hands,” explains Lyuba Basin, Rare Books Librarian. “It provides an opportunity to connect ideas learned in class with real, physical, tangible objects.”

The History of Israel and Palestine

At the request of assistant professor Annie Greene, Ph.D. Basin recently curated a presentation for the class “The History of Israel/Palestine (HIS 3910/MID E 3880).” The course is described as “an introduction to the history of Israel/Palestine, from the nineteenth century until the early twenty-first century, in which the students “assess the histories of nationalisms, colonialisms, war and violence, alongside the histories of ideologies, necessity, peace and diplomacy.” For this presentation, Basin selected forty titles specifically for Greene’s course; a few examples included Correspondence of Palestine Tourists (1875) by George Albert Smith, Arab-Israeli Peace (1982) by Fayez Sayegh, and Paper Boats Zine (2021) by University of Utah alum, Tamrika Khvtisiashvili. 

“My students enjoyed having the tactile experience with history,” says Greene. “While we analyze and discuss different kinds of sources in class, the ‘PDFification’ flattens and distorts that a bit. Getting to see and touch different rare and old books, maps, manuscripts, posters etc., really underscores the variety of materials historians consult, and why that variety matters. “