About
This virtual exhibit is an expanded version of a display formerly held at Charlotte's Mint Museum of History entitled "The Printed Word Prevails," featuring selections from the Rare Books & Special Collections at the Abbot Vincent Taylor Library. While many of the books are indeed rare and valuable as collector's items, they were not selected for this exhibition on that basis. Rather, they have been selected for their educational and instructional value, and for what they can tell us about five hundred years of writing, scholarship, and the technologies of printing. Some are landmarks in publishing history, some demonstrate interesting techniques of typography or illustration, and some are simply beautiful to look at. While the sections on sixteenth and seventeenth century books have been expanded from the Mint exhibit, the eighteenth and nineteenth century sections show the greatest departure. The added emphasis on instructional significance was influenced by the exhibition catalog for the landmark 1963 exhibition "Printing and the Mind of Man" presented at the British Museum. Expansion of the eighteenth and nineteenth century sections also make this selection more representative of the actual collection than was the Mint exhibit, which emphasized the oldest volumes. Lastly, we are often asked about twentieth century books. The Belmont Abbey College collection does include twentieth century first editions and limited editions, some of considerable significance, and we may decide to include a number of these in a future expansion of this exhibit. - From the Online Exhibition
Access
The online exhibition can be accessed at the following website: http://crusader.bac.edu/library/rarebooks/.