The Books of Herring Cole
Exploring Its Secrets and History
Tucked away in the trees on the corner of campus stands a building that is not only one of St. Lawrence’s most beautiful, but also one of its most historical. Next to Owen D. Young Library is much smaller in size, but has just as much grandeur, is Herring Cole. It is easy to see why it was added to the National Register of Historic Places by the United States Department of the Interior. Eva Nielsen ’27, explained that the building was a result of the Roman Revival architectural structure that was popular at the time. She is a tour guide and shared that it is one of her favorite places to show potential new students and their families. Herring Cole was the original library at St. Lawrence and was the main library for almost a century (1869-1859). After being mostly redone in the 1950s, one of the only remnants of the old library are some of the books still kept there.
Herring Cole is home to many historical books and pieces of literature. Many of which were donated to the library. On the second floor you’ll find four shelves on both sides with these books. I had never thought to look at them until the other day when my friends and I wanted to take a break from studying and decided to explore the upstairs.
Apart from classic Shakespeare collections, teachings of Plato and Socrates, and Pocahontas, there are some interesting and rare finds. A gorgeous copy of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s works sits on display on one of the bookshelves. I carefully turn the pages, so that they do not rip and fall apart, and find that the book will be one hundred years old in five years. Old texts on religion and theology with bursting, intricately detailed bindings and covers. You don’t really see books that look like this anymore. I can only imagine the amount thought, time, and work that was put into the art of the book covers and bindings alone. Most of which have held up very well for being two hundred years old.
Some of the books also have some hidden secrets to uncover. For example, Schiller’s Poems, which is dated back to 1887, has real flowers pressed between some of its gold-gilding pages. One of my friends found a postcard at the beginning of The Story Bible, addressed to a friend in the early 1900s. My favorite book there, Popular Poetic Pearls, features works of some of the greatest poets of the 1800s and early 1900s, including Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe. Lodged in between its pages are poems written by past students, some I’m sure were from many years ago. I’d assume that they were inspired by the poems they had read in the collection and left their own creations to remain with them for others to read down the line. Also, some books still have notes written in them from students many years ago. It’s really interesting to see what they were studying and how it is similar and different from how and what we study now.
I find that some of the most interesting ones tend to be without a title or design on the cover. Typically, these are children’s stories or true experiences of growing up on a farm that fills these pages, with illustrations that would rival the books of today. Or totally random books that cover the lives of early pirates serve as an intriguing addition to books about world history right beside it.
Who reads these books? I do not actually know if anyone does, but my friends and I like to explore them to see what interesting things we can find. I can usually find something new and different every time I explore these bookshelves. If you are a lover of history, you might enjoy checking them out every once in a while, especially when you need a break from studying.