This story reminds me of the time I took a course in medieval manuscripts while I was a student at the Columbia University School of Library Service. The teacher was a visiting professor, an elderly woman who had been curator of manuscripts at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. One day our class met in the Morgan Library, and we gathered in an upper room where some manuscripts were put out for us to see. The professor handled them, and she did so in a fairly casual way (without white gloves). The room was fairly dim, but I could see the assistant curator of manuscripts at the Morgan cringing in the background. He was obviously not happy with the way our professor was handling some of the Morgan's treasures, but who was he, a fairly young man, to tell this distinguished scholar and former manuscripts curator at the BN, how to handle a medieval manuscript.
Phil Weimerskirch, Special Collections Librarian, Providence Public Library
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