On March 29th, 1848, Niagara Falls ran dry. Rather an ice flow jammed up and blocked water for a day and a half. Thus began National Niagara Falls Runs Dry Day.
This gives me an opportunity to exhibit a few books from my bibliography collection-books about, and listing more books on specific collections. All before the internet made things different.
First, a two volume set of “Anthology and Bibliography of Niagara Falls” by Charles Mason Dow, published 1921. This two volume set of books is 1423 pages of wonderful words. The first volume is all about the history of Niagara Falls. This is not just a dry history but has Travelers’ accounts (both before 1840 and after 1840). We have geography, the Flora and Fauna, music about, even maps and pictures. It actually leads into the first half of the second book. The second book’s second half is all about documenting other writings about Niagara Falls, by year.
Bibliography books (books listing other books on a topic) are good resource books. So in no order, I have some interesting, and unusual bibliographs: “Bibliography on the Chemistry of Tomato Plants” 1961; “Edgar Allen Poe, a Bibliography of Criticism 1827-1967” 1981; “Bibliography of Carl Sandburg Materials in the Collections of Library of Congress” 1969; “bibliography of Animal Venoms” (signed) 1948; and Airport Noise Pollution-its effects on people and property” 1973.
Books like these are cool in their own right, but also give leads to even more unusual books. I have gone through each one to see if there were some weird book within to track down. The hunt never ends for good finds.
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss, from “I can Read with My Eyes Shut”.
Librarytomes 