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.
Your experience isn't unique. A few years back a group of 7 or 8
members of the A. Edward Newton Society visited a library, to remain
unnamed, that holds a great deal of Johnson/Boswell material. Our
host was a well-know editor of such material who knew it better than
any librarian, but was employed by an academic department rather than
by the library.
The editor, whom some of you might be able to identify if I were to
mention that he'd likely succeed in Hollywood were he interested,
very naturally gave us ms material to look at, without gloves.
Not being a librarian, and, therefore, not frequently having the
occasion to handle such famous ms material -- I handle lots of AEN
and related ms material, but even I know the difference -- handling
it was one of my greatest thrills, akin to handing a 42-line bible,
which I once had the good fortune to do.
And the point of this post: The librarian in charge of the material
sat in the back of the room, looking extremely uncomfortable.