Jeffers Family Fund for Agricultural Heritage

What role did changing plow technology play in the industrial revolution? How have modern American ideas of citizenship been shaped by the food that families put on their tables? What tree species could be found in Southeast Asian forests before the expansion of logging in the 19th and 20th centuries?

Scholars come with many research interests to Mann Library, but all with the same expectation—to explore a historically rich collection for clues that explain conditions they are trying to better understand today.

Keeping aging historical works and vulnerable rare book treasures available for public use despite their fragile condition can be a difficult balancing act. Mann Library is able to meet this challenge because of resources such as the Jeffers Family Fund for Agricultural Heritage. Established by Thomas ’63 and Gretchen Jeffers to help safeguard the knowledge and heritage embodied in Mann’s collection, the Jeffers Fund provides Mann’s preservation unit with the day-to-day resources needed to repair and preserve books and other print materials. Recently conserved gems at Mann Library include:

• Dictionnaire oeconomique, by Noël Chomel. Commercy, 1741. 2 vols. A major French-language compendium of 18th century information on domestic management that was widely read in Europe and later had important influence on the development of encyclopedic resources in early 19th century Japan.
• Bee venom therapy: Bee venom, its nature, and its effect on arthritic and rheumatoid conditions, by Bodog F. Beck, New York, London, D. Appleton-Century, 1935. A groundbreaking guide book by an early 20th century American physician that has received new attention with the growing modern use of bee venom treatments for acute and chronic inflammatory conditions.

By helping to protect volumes such as these, the impact of the Jeffers Fund is both immediate and long-lasting. Thanks to the work supported by the fund, scholars can now safely browse these volumes for information they need today. They can also count on being able to return to these treasures for answers to new questions that future generations will pose tomorrow.