Rauner Special Collections Library

Last week was frigid and we spent most of the week bundled up at home, but by Friday night we had major cabin fever! There aren't tons of things to do in our cute little town, but we piled into the car and decided to drive around til we found something to do. We ended up at the Rauner Special Collections Library on Dartmouth campus. 

 It is a gorgeous building and we had fun checking out some really cool books.

We found out that the "most requested item" from the collection is the first edition Book of Mormon. Of course, as Mormons this was the book we were most interested in, too!

 It was awesome to see the old formatting and see how well the book had been preserved.

 My other favorite part of the Rauner Library was the first edition copy of John Audubon's "Birds of America". The library has three of the four volumes and they are beautifully on display under glass. The volumes were previously owned by Daniel Webster, a Dartmouth alum class of 1801. Webster had ordered them directly from John Audubon when he was in the U.S. seeking subscribers to his "Birds of America" work.

I love Audubon's work! I'll have to visit the Rauner Library more often because the librarian said they turn the page every week to display a different bird. 

(Aaaaand....If anyone has read the book "Okay for Now", like me, then this Audubon collection will seem even more significant!)