Researching something else, I came across this quote from former CC librarian Ellsworth Mason. He’s talking to a potential donor about the library’s nascent rare book collection:

“[Rare books on display] help involve undergraduates emotionally with books, and this, I am convinced, is the basis of the entire educational process.”

Source: Ellsworth Mason letter to Horace Eames Day, August 24, 1959, in Colorado College Special Collections office gift file for Horace Eames Day.