Colorado College Special Collections maintains collections of rare books, special editions, manuscripts, and published and archival material on Colorado, Colorado Springs, and Colorado College. We support CC’s thematic minor in book studies, collecting materials showing the history and future of the written word in material form.
The image in our header shows some of the books in our Early Colorado College Library collection. Some of these books were part of the CC library before 1882, when the entire library sat on shelf or two in a room in Cutler Hall. All of these books were later shelved in Coburn Library, built in 1894. They are now in Colorado College Special Collections and give us a small glimpse of what students might have borrowed over a hundred years ago.
Jessy Randall, Curator of Special Collections, is the author of the Special Collections blog.
I used to work in Coburn Library as a student (I graduated in 1961, not long before Tutt was built) so I might have shelved some of those books! It was too bad both Coburn and Perkins Hall had to be torn down, but I’ll have fond memories of both!
Hi Lorinda! Yes, you may well have shelved some of these. It’s clear they were fairly heavily used — they are quite worn.
It’s possible that somewhere in the library there are books with your name on the checkout card in the pocket — a kind of record we no longer keep, now that we do electronic checkout.
We’re glad you have fond memories of Coburn Library. We have some photographs of it online: http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/library/SpecialCollections/Walk/Coburn.html.