Understanding Rare Books

Shelves in JCU's Special Collections.

Three major reasons special collections librarians may deem a book worthy of preservation are because of personal value, exhibition value, and/or research value. Personal value refers to special features, like previous ownership or inscriptions, that make a book unique from other editions. While personal value tends to give specific editions of a book value, a book can still have exhibition value and research value even if it is one of many copies. Candle-Lightin' Time has no known personal value, but it does have theoretical exhibition value and research value. The book's floral, Art Nouveau cover design and its interior illustrations deem it worthy of exhibition; however, the undone sewing makes its exhibition ill-advised. If one were to exhibit it, it would be best to keep the book closed, only displaying the cover. its creative contributors, poetic style, illustrations, and design all contribute to the book's strong research value. Candle-Lightin' Time could serve as an especially useful primary source for scholars researching across multiple disciplines, such as African American Literature, Art Nouveau, African American Vernacular, Reconstruction, Early 20th Century American Literature, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Photography, and the American Publishing Industry.

Candle-Lightin' Time would likely be of most interest to the History and English Departments. 

In the History Department, courses that may benefit from using Candle-Lightin' Time as a primary source are HS 2112: History of the United States from 1877 and HS 3143: Slavery and Abolition. Dunbar's status as a post-Civil War and pre-Harlem Renaissance African American writer could prove relevant to the time periods these classes study. Analyzing the portrayal of African Americans in his work and in the Camera Club's photographs could reveal larger cultural attitudes about African Americans during his lifetime. Students in HS 3000: Historical Methods, HS 4091: Senior Thesis, and HS 4098: Internship may also find the book interesting more broadly as a primary source with a complex and unique history to investigate. 

In the English Department, students enrolled in EN1310: Introduction to Poetry Writing Workshop, EN 2640: Sociolinguistics and Literature, EN 2700: Major American Writers, and EN 3710: American Literature to 1900 could learn much from studying Dunbar's poems. Students interested in creative writing and sociolinguistics could learn about Dunbar's vernacular style of writing, while students of American Literature could learn how to contextualize Dunbar in the broader American canon. 

Because we have established that JCU's copy of the book is in fair to good condition, its examination should be supervised and take place in special collections. There are also a number of professional and safety standards that must be adhered to when examining the book. Different institutions may use different methods, but at JCU these include examining the book on foam wedges covered by felt cloth and propping the book's pages open with book weights (weighted cloth sacks) or book "snakes" (long, weighted strings). 

Outside of the classes mentioned above, researchers at JCU and perhaps other institutions might be interested in researching Candle-Lightin' Time because of the style and context of the poems, the racial dynamics of the photographs, Margaret Armstrong and the Art Nouveau movement, and because of the shift the book marked in the publication of Dunbar's work. 

Dunbar's vernacular poems cover a range of subject matter, like daily life for rural African Americans, young romance, and African American soldiers in the Civil War. Though most are written in a vernacular style, the book's first poem, "Dinah Kneading Dough," appears in a more typical white standard English. Additionally, each poem follows a rhyme scheme and has a uniform number of syllables in each line. Scholars might be interested in the place his work occupies in African American literary history—does it conform to the stereotypical depictions of the Uncle Remus stories, or is it more nuanced? How might it differ from the African American literature to come out of the Harlem Renaissance?

The Hampton Institute Camera Club also offers interesting avenues of study. Though the Camera Club was part of an African American University, one of the Club's leaders both in general and on the Dunbar project was Leigh Richmond Miner, a white man. Photography scholars might be interested in studying the racial dynamics of the photographs and what messages they communicate about their African American subjects.

Decorative arts researchers interested in Armstrong and the Art Nouveau movement may be interested in studying Candle-Lightin' Time in the broader context of Armstrong's other work to trace the development of her distinct styles. Comparing her work on the book to that of other Art Nouveau illustrators, both men and women, could illuminate the ways in which her style is unique or representative of larger artistic trends.

Finally, Candle-Lightin' Time displays multiple important shifts within Dunbar's work, like the poems' subject matter, the photographers, and the illustrator. While the poems in Candle-Lightin' Time concern everyday life for African Americans or even Black soldiers in the Civil War, previous collections like Poems of Cabin and Field (1899) contain poems that romanticize the days of slavery (Dunbar 1899, 9-29). It was also his first book that Miner photographed and that Armstrong illustrated. Scholars of Dunbar might be interested in why this shift occurred and how it impacted the popularity of his work. Researchers interested in American publishing at this time may want to contextualize Dunbar's work within larger trends in bookmaking and book publication at this time. 

Whether it is the design, the creative contributors, or its contents, Candle-Lightin' Time is worthwhile to study for scholars across multiple disciplines. The multiplicity of lenses through which the book can be examined make it an ideal research tool to preserve in Special Collections for scholars at the undergraduate to the professional level.