by Dave Tyckoson
Associate Dean, Henry Madden Library

When the Fresno State Normal School opened in 1911, it had no library, no librarian, and no library books. During the first year, the administration assigned Maude Schaeffer, an instructor of English, the task of starting the library. In that year, the campus acquired 432 books for the library. While some of the books were purchased, many were gifts from faculty – including from President McLane himself. Of that first collection, the Henry Madden Library still owns 44 volumes. Most of these books will be on display in the library throughout the fall semester on shelves near the Reference Desk on the First floor.

We know precisely what books were obtained in the early years because we still have the hand-written registers that listed each purchase and acquisition (in Special Collections, 4th floor south). Those registers provide an item by item listing of the books in the order that they were received. The very first book in the library of the new college was The Successful Stockman and Manual of Husbandry by Andrew Gardenier, published in 1900 by the King Richardson Co. of Springfield, Mass., which was the gift of J.B. Corcoran. It was prophetic that the first book was on agriculture, since today the University is well known for its research in that area. Unfortunately, we no longer own a copy of that book, but we do have the current edition of the Stockman’s Handbook in the Reference Collection.

The earliest book that remains in the library was the 11th book acquired, the then brand new 1911 Peeps at Industries by Edith A. Browne. As part of a series of Peeps at cities, countries, and professions, it covers the production and use of sugar. Two other Peeps books are still in the collection today: Rome (book no. 133) and Kashmir (book no. 134). By far the most popular book in the first collection was Emma K. Gordon’s Gordon Readers, of which the library obtained 18 copies. We have no way of knowing today, but it most likely was a textbook used in education courses.

It is interesting to look back and see what the first year of the library contained. The largest segment of the collection was devoted to literature, as is still true today. Shakespeare, Hawthorne, and Longfellow were all represented, but Dickens, Poe, and Dickinson were nowhere to be seen. Since the campus was a Normal School, which was the then-standard term for a Teacher’s College, many of the books related to education, teaching, and children. History, geography, science, health, and agriculture all had many volumes. Home Economics was a very large collection, which fit the contemporary role of the mostly female enrollment of the college. Very few books were acquired on the subjects of engineering, business, politics/government, and the social sciences.

Over the years, many of the books were damaged, lost, and replaced with newer editions or newer titles. Some simply were no longer useful because their content was out of date or no longer relevant to the curriculum of the college. After a century of growth and in a library with over 1,100,000 current volumes, it is remarkable that we still retain 10% of the first year collection. To see what you would have been studying a century ago, visit the display in the Reference Department of the library.