Every place has its secrets. Sometimes they’re tunnels carved into stone under a crumbling coastal castle, sometimes they’re ghosts walking long forgotten halls. Regardless of their form, secrets have one goal: to be found out. The ghost waits for a clairvoyant to reach out, the castle awaits an intrepid explorer. For Kutztown University it’s our Archives. The room itself is unassuming, tucked away among silent study nooks. Like most ghosts you don’t realize what’s locked inside. Rows of shelves circle the perimeter of the room and take up residence among the middle as well. Each shelf cradles multiple volumes of books, lingering ghosts left to remind us of our own past.
 

   Kutztown University has existed for over 150 years, opening its doors as the Keystone State Normal School in 1866. Although the library’s archives haven’t been around that long, some of our rare books date back to the same time period. The hundreds of antique, vintage, and rare books are our own ghostly testaments waiting for friendly faces to look over their pages once more.
 

   The Kutztown area has a unique position among the local cultures, infused with the Pennsylvanian Dutch traditions. It shouldn’t be surprising that a number of the library’s older books are written exclusively in the regional dialect. The German language collection includes several intriguing volumes, including Katechismus der Differential und Intergralrechnung, a textbook on differential and integral calculus from 1896.
 

   The multi-shelf collection of locally, handbound cloth covered volumes are accredited to the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society. The twenty-eight-volume series covers all aspects of Pennsylvanian German life and culture. The first edition was printed in 1936 by Schlechter’s in Allentown, only a short distance from the university.

   According to the first volume, the early 1930’s were influential years for folk art which features heavily in the volume. It presents the full text of multiple articles written by Joseph Downs’ covering local art within exhibits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Pennsylvania Museum at Philadelphia. Down’s article recounts the 1934 exhibit as the first in the American Wing to feature folk art of any kind. For many that grew up within the tri-county area, it’s surreal imagining the homemade crafts and family heirlooms we cherish were once a topic of national discussion, on display in a prestigious museum.

   Within this are Charles C. Ziegler’s dialect poetry. Ziegler’s inclusion is due to the German Folklore Society’s desire to preserve the language and customs of their people during a time characterized by Americanization. The text’s forward notes that the “Pennsylvania German dialect was slowly losing its hold in the life of the people.”  The loss of language is a wound keenly felt by any culture. Ziegler’s poems focus on the unique language and dialect offering readers a connection back to that language. The same forward describes the poetry as “[revealing] a depth of mood, a sweep of cadence, an emotional power quite native to our dialect,” again emphasizing the cultural connection and importance between the arts and a people.

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   The twenty-seven other volumes similarly describe the national perspective on our local culture, while also acting as a preservation tool for a people whose stories are often disregarded or lost among the years.

   In another show of historical transfiguration, one of the oldest volumes in the rare books collection offers another connection to Germanic heritage, and instant nostalgia to most students and faculty alike. Grimm’s Household Fairy Tales is one of the many oversized books in the collection and must be angled askew and sideways to fit onto the shelf.

   The collection is fully illustrated by R. André, who’s remarkable and fantastical depictions of well-known characters take up full pages throughout the text and grace the cover. The illustration in question is a representation of the titular character from one of the included stories, The Fairy Queen. She is surrounded by nature and bathed in soft colors evoking an enchanting sense of romanticism and magic that mirrors the stories held inside.

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   Although the stories were arguably more horrifying and gruesome for the children living near Germany’s prominent forests, many German American families have their own copy of the iconic fairy tales that have been shared among their generations. As one such metaphorical child of multiple cultural influences, it’s fitting that Kutztown would have not one but two copies of these formative stories. Both volumes are from an 1890 edition and show their age proudly with charmingly yellowed pages that encourage readers to recall the ages of knights on white horses, and maidens fair. This collection includes familiar stories such as, Cinderella, Hansel and Grethel, Rapunzel, Snow-White and the Red-Rose, and Little Red Cap (Little Red Riding Hood).

   The edition’s tagline proclaims that it is “Newly Translated from the Original by Ella Boldey,” which reigns true for many of the stories inside. Although the initial translation by Edgar Taylor, offered an English translation in 1823 described by the British Library  as lacking many of the more gruesome elements making for a more heavily censored collection than the original text and 1890’s edition.

   The Rare Books collection isn’t restricted to these cultural tales and traditions. It boasts a large collection dedicated to art, popular culture, and international literature that all serve to enrich our offerings as an academic institution. But like any close-knit community our pride is rooted in our campus, state, and heritage reflected in the previously mentioned editions, but also within the numerous accounts of American history, Pennsylvanian history, and local characters. Among the books are also loose-bound collections of letters, manuscripts, previous course catalogs, yearbooks, and editions of the university’s literary magazines in which all offer glimpses into lives now far removed from our own understanding due to the ceaseless progression of time.

   These books contain the forgotten parts of history that have always lingered around us like all too familiar phantoms. These ghosts remain in their box- the books in their room- heavy with memories of long-past owners and eras. Each lingering vestiges of the past waiting for someone to open the door, and to turn their pages once again. All they ask is for someone to take a closer look at their secrets that no-longer wish to remain silent.