Elizabeth Rawlings' gift enriches library collection

From left, John Dean, director of Cornell Library's Department of Preservation and Conservation; University Librarian Sarah Thomas; Elizabeth Rawlings; and Katherine Reagan, curator of rare books, look over 18th-century books donated to the library by Rawlings and repaired and rebound by book conservator Michele Brown. Robert Barker/University Photography

Elizabeth Rawlings recently made a gift to Cornell University Library of two rare 18th-century books on French history. Titled The History of The Civil Wars of France, the two-volume set is an English translation of an earlier Italian publication and was printed in London in 1758.

"This gift is a wonderful addition to our strong research collections on 18th-century France and complements an earlier edition of 1647 in our holdings," said Katherine Reagan, curator of rare books. "Scholars of both British and French history might find this particular edition very useful for a variety of reasons -- as an example of the work of the translator, Ellis Farneworth; as a resource to which 18th-century British historians would have turned for the study of France; and as a printed artifact of the period."

Last year Rawlings contacted John Dean, director of the library's Department of Preservation and Conservation, to request his assistance in restoring the volumes. The books were originally bound in full leather with gilt spines; however Volume I had no covers and Volume II had only its back cover. The first volume also was missing the title page as well as the last two pages, and a number of pages were damaged and discolored.

Book conservator Michele Brown repaired and rebound the books with goatskin spines and handmade marbled paper covers and tooled new spine labels in gold leaf. The conservation staff also located copies of the same books at Pratt Institute and arranged to have photocopies made of the missing pages. These were scanned by Allen Quirk, a digital imaging technician in the conservation department, and then printed on toned buffered paper so that they could be inserted in the books.

Rawlings gave the books to Cornell in memory of her father, Edward Raleigh Trapnell. "I am very grateful to John Dean and Michele Brown in the conservation department for the beautiful work they did to restore these volumes," she said. "My father gave the books to me because of my interest in French history and in the hope that I would find a home for them. He would be so pleased to know that they are now in the Cornell University Library as part of our extensive collection in French history."