Book Collections

books
  • The Early Textbook Collection focuses on books used in the common schools of America from the late 18th into the early 20th centuries. Unusual items include a 1777 copy of the New England Primer Improved and Peter Parley's Tales, dated 1829.
  • The Educational Theory Collection consists of volumes of pedagogical thought and theory, primarily of the 19th century. The lectures of the American Institute of Instruction give education students fine primary source material.
  • The Faculty Publications Collection includes books on various subjects written by faculty, administrative, and professional staff, both present and emeritus. Works ranging from fiction to college history reflect the creative and scholarly achievements of the SUNY Oneonta staff.
  • The Folio Society Collection is a specimen collection of "editions of the world's literature in a format worthy of the contents, at a price within the reach of everyman." Masters' Theses include those theses written by students in the Cooperstown Graduate Programs and those completed on the SUNY Oneonta campus as special studies for graduate credit. Cooperstown theses reflect program emphases: museum studies, folk culture, and the conservation of historic and artistic works. Local papers have been predominantly scientific in nature.
  • The New York State Case Books comprise the noncirculating segment of the New York State Collection. Here are local histories, most county histories, and several early state histories. An outstanding work is The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, in six quarto volumes, each with many maps, plans, and views that record the development of New York.
  • The New York State Verse Collection reflects the versifying efforts of New Yorkers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Over two hundred titles reveal the emotions and experiences of men and women who, in many instances, readily acknowledge their poetic limitations. Their verse does, however, provide valuable insights into American social history and universal human experience.
  • The Martha C. Chambers Popular Fiction Collection consists of volumes written in English during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The collection is limited to popular literature with works of literary significance generally excluded.
  • The Martha C. Chambers Memorial Collection consists of examples of fine modern printing. Presses included are the Ashendene Press, Baskerville Press, Doves Press, Essex House Press, Grabhord Press, Gregynog Press, Nonesuch Press, St. Dominic's Press, Shakespeare Head Press, and Riccardi Press.
    Private Press Publications include a sampling of the work of famous 19th-century presses, notably Mosher Press and Roycrofter Press, as well as contemporary local presses, including Reflections Press, Nocturnal Canary Press, Serpent and Eagle Press, and Swamp Press.
  • SCC Miscellanies refer to books on all subjects which are worthy of special housing because of value, format, or condition. Such volumes include expensive facsimiles of great works, fragile 19th-century paperbacks, early children's books, and Diderot's 38-volume Encyclopédie of 1777.