Through the Rose Scholars Program we had the fantastic opportunity of learning about the Kroch Rare and Manuscript Library from Lance Heidig, an Olin librarian. He crafted a fascinating talk that highlighted several of the impressive artifacts from the Kroch library while telling an abbreviated story of the development of Western civilization from four thousand years ago to the twenty-first century. Some of the artifacts are pictured below.

However, what made this such a wonderful experience for me was learning that Cornell has a football field-sized vault in the bottom of Olin library that houses these special objects and primary sources. Mr. Heidig also did a great job of highlighting the need to balance preservation and access. While it is important to keep the objects and texts in good condition, it is equally (if not more) important that students, professors, and scholars can learn directly from them. Overall, I truly enjoyed learning about this fascinating aspect of Cornell that I previously did not even know existed!