Seven years of flight, indexed, and then discarded
A federal bibliography of the writing about powered flight between 1909 and 1916, from a university library that eventually stamped it DISCARDED.
The story
In 1921 the Government Printing Office issued Paul Brockett’s Bibliography of Aeronautics, 1909–1916, prepared for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. The title page credits that body, which the record identifies as the precursor to NASA. The subject is the literature of the formative years of powered flight, and it takes more than 1,400 pages to hold it.
This copy had other lives. A University of Detroit bookplate and a U. OF D. mark at the foot of the spine place it in that library, where a stamp reads REFERENCE BOOK / FOR ROOM USE ONLY and another reads DISCARDED. A blind-embossed seal on the title page reads FROM THE LIBRARY OF SAMUEL C. HOFFMAN / SAN FRANCISCO / CALIFORNIA, so it also passed through a private library. Which came first the record does not say.
It is a working copy and looks like one: heavily rubbed, darkened tan cloth, fraying at the edges, corners and spine, age-toned leaves, and no structural collapse observed. It has not been collated in full.
Details
- Date
- 1921
- Publisher
- Government Printing Office, Washington
- Edition
- Original 1921 printing
- Binding
- cloth: Tan institutional/library cloth, possibly rebound
- Condition
- Heavily rubbed, darkened and soiled tan cloth; fraying along edges/corners and spine; U. OF D. library shelf marks, Detroit ownership bookplate and blind-stamped previous private ownership; stamped 'DISCARDED'; interior pages show general age toning, no observed structural collapse. No full collation.
- Bookplate
- EX LIBRIS UNIVERSITATIS DETROITENSIS
- Stamp
- REFERENCE BOOK / FOR ROOM USE ONLY; DISCARDED
- Stamp
- FROM THE LIBRARY OF SAMUEL C. HOFFMAN / SAN FRANCISCO / CALIFORNIA [blind embossed]
- Mark on the binding
- U. OF D.
