As we prepare for a future expansion and renovation of the McGraw-Page Library, it’s fun to look back on how the College’s library has evolved, all of which is well-documented in the College Archives.
Although the College had a library housed in the Main Building in Boydton, library use for students was heavily restricted. The Board of Trustees set the rule as “the Library shall be opened at such times as the Faculty may appoint, and shall be kept open for one hour.” Since the College made library use difficult, the student members of the two literary societies, the Washington Society and the Franklin Society, purchased and maintained extensive book collections for their members. Some of the oldest books in our collection still have bookplates from the societies. Upon the move to Ashland in 1868, the literary society libraries served as the primary libraries until 1886, when these books were formally given to the College for its library. Originally, this library was opened only one day a week from 11 A.M. until 6:30 P.M. By 1908, the Randolph-Macon College View Book indicates that the library was open daily for student use.
It wasn’t until 1923 when the first Walter Hines Page Library, now Peele Hall, opened for use that students had access to a proper library with study areas and full services overseen by a professional librarian. This library also served the Ashland community.
In 1961, the second Walter Hines Page Library was built, and with a 1984 addition that doubled its size, a complete interior renovation, and a name change to McGraw-Page Library, this is the building we have today. On December 12, 1961, faculty and students formed a human chain and moved the entire library across Henry Street to the new building in one day, finishing before 6:00 p.m.
We have come a long way from the one hour rule in Boydton to the present, when we have hundreds of thousands of books, journals, and other databases available anytime, anywhere, as well as a 24/7 study area!
When facing life’s questions, who do you turn to for advice? We all need mentors, particularly when the odds seem stacked against us. To find his own … author Tim Ferriss tracked down more than 100 eclectic experts to help him, and you, navigate life. Through short, action-packed profiles, he shares their secrets for success, happiness, meaning, and more.
Award-winning poet and critic Kevin Young traces the history of the hoax as a peculiarly American phenomenon–the legacy of P.T. Barnum’s ‘humbug’ culminating with the currency of Donald J. Trump’s ‘fake news’. Disturbingly, Young finds that fakery is woven from stereotype and suspicion, with race being the most insidious American hoax of all. He chronicles how Barnum came to fame by displaying figures like Joice Heth, a black woman whom he pretended was the 161-year-old nursemaid to George Washington, and ‘What Is It?’, an African American man Barnum professed was a newly discovered missing link in evolution. Bunk then turns to the hoaxing of history and the ways that forgers, plagiarists, and journalistic fakers invent backstories and falsehoods to sell us lies about themselves and about the world in our own time, from pretend Native Americans like Nasdijj to the deadly imposture of Clark Rockefeller, from the made-up memoirs of James Frey to the identity theft of Rachel Dolezal. This brilliant and timely work asks what it means to live in a post-factual world of ‘truthiness’ where everything is up for interpretation and everyone is subject to a pervasive cynicism that damages our ideas of reality, fact, and art.
From Dreaming the Beatles John, Paul, George, and Ringo remain the world’s favorite thing. Yet every theory ever devised to explain why has failed. It wasn’t their timing. It wasn’t drugs. It wasn’t that they were the voice of a generation. The vast majority of Beatles fans today weren’t born when the records came out–yet the allure of the music keeps on growing, nearly fifty years after the band split. The world keeps dreaming the Beatles, long after the Beatles themselves figured the dream was over. Our Beatles have outlasted theirs. It is truly impossible to imagine a world without the Beatles. Yes, they are the biggest, most iconic rock band of all time. Their music continues to delight, define, and provide a soundtrack for fans all over the globe. It seems, however, that with each passing decade this band has become more popular, more influential, more ubiquitous, more beloved, just MORE, and in Dreaming the Beatles, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape brings his singular voice to the most universal pop culture phenomenon in history, exploring what the Beatles mean today and why they still matter so intensely to a generation that has never known a world without them. This is not another biography of the band, or an expose of how they broke up. It isn’t a history of their gigs or gear. It’s a fresh, unconventional look at the Beatles’ astounding story, from their early friendship to their Sixties creative explosion to their crazed solo years. And, as in his previous books like Talking to Girls About Duran Duran and On Bowie, Sheffield focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. Chronicling his lifelong obsession with the Beatles along with the rest of the world’s, Dreaming the Beatles is a passionate celebration of the band and their music, showing how John, Paul, George, and Ringo invented the future we’re living in today. It’s a book that is brilliant, fresh, and universal–kind of like the Beatles themselves.