Answering the Call of Rare Books

In his hometown of Urbana, Illinois, Tad Boehmer ’12 worked part-time at a special collections library when he was 15 years old. He found himself enchanted by the rare books.

Later, as a prospective student visiting Grinnell, he sat in on Professor Joseph Cummins’ Cicero course; the class sat around an oval table, and each student read a passage and then translated it. Boehmer ended up taking that same course during his senior year at Grinnell.

Boehmer also developed an admiration for Professor Monessa Cummins, with whom he also took several other classics courses. “I’m far from the first to say this, but Professor Monessa Cummins was and remains a great role model of how it is possible to balance commitment to students and excellent instruction with meticulous research and dedication to the field,” Boehmer says. “I took many classes with Professor Cummins, among which my favorites were ancient Greek history and ancient Roman art and architecture.”

For Boehmer, one of the most impactful things about studying classics at Grinnell was the opportunity to work in small classes led by expert faculty. “Tackling ancient Greek is much less daunting with a seasoned guide,” Boehmer says. “The third-floor Classics Seminar Room — alas, no more — felt like our own little clubhouse where we could investigate and interrogate these works from millennia past. Our professors were able to inject the texts with new life and vibrancy.”

Boehmer says another favorite aspect of studying classics was the traditional end-of-year gathering. Invitations would arrive in student mailboxes with text printed in both Latin and ancient Greek.

“This was the true test,” says Boehmer. “If you couldn’t translate the invitation, you wouldn’t know the date and time of the party!”

Because many early printed books, manuscripts, and archival documents are in Latin, students interested in historic documents benefitted greatly from studying the language. Boehmer says that becoming familiar with Latin and Greek, as well as classical civilization in general, also shed light on numerous other aspects of the world around him — from architecture and music to biology and mathematics.

Today, as curator of rare books at the Michigan State University Libraries’ Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections, he uses his degree each day, whether in cataloging a 15th-century cookbook or in teaching a class on the history and development of the book as a physical object. Though he may not remember everything about the Histories of Herodotus or the layout of a Roman villa, Boehmer explains, the skills he learned and the inquisitiveness the program fostered are still very much with him.

“If I could go back to my time at Grinnell, I would only remind myself to enjoy the experience, both in and out of class, as much as I could,” Boehmer says, “To savor making connections, to revel in this special time, and to embrace the wonderful serendipities that so often came up on this small campus and in this small town.”