Rauner Special Collections Library

Chance encounters aren’t just for rom-coms. Or even the living.Sometimes you stumble across an artifact that makes you want to learn more about a person. Such was the case when I noticed an envelope in our Realia collection titled “CRIB Belonging to William N. Johnston Class of 1893.”

When I opened it I found not one but two small scrolls of crib notes apparently written for an exam in German. My first question was: what disciplinary action did William face? Was he expelled?

Here's a good one. This week we stumbled on a sweet little book entitled Peeps into the Far North from 1875. The book, geared toward young readers, is full of fun facts about Greenland, Lapland, and Iceland. Our copy was presented to Evelyn Parsons in recognition of her services for the Wesleyan Methodist Foreign Missionary Society. Evelyn apparently raised enough money for the cause to warrant a book prize.

That is all well and good, but then you see the warning that little Evelyn wrote in the back of the book:

Seymour “Budd” Wilson Schulberg was a screenwriter, novelist, a member of the Dartmouth Class of 1936, and for three years of his life – from 1937 to 1940 – he was also a member of the Communist Party. A decade later, at the height of the McCarthy Era, he was called to testify in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities regarding his party involvement. However, unlike some others who were called before the committee, Schulberg cooperated fully with investigators, acknowledging his membership in the Communist Party and naming former associates.