Dream interpretation made easy

  

Madame Le Marchand’s Fortune Teller and Dreamer’s Dictionary (1863) will tell you the meaning of everything in your dreams. Each fruit, for example, has a particular meaning: cherries “portend vexation and trouble in marriage”; gooseberries “indicate many children,” and filberts “forebode much trouble and danger.” (Has J.K. Rowling’s Sybill Trelawney been reading this book?)

The numbers after each entry are the lucky numbers your dreams have provided. Visit Special Collections and request the book to begin interpreting your own dreams the official 1863 way.

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Noel Black loves endpapers

KRCC’s Noel Black gave our endpapers a little love in A Big Something today (May 17, 2012).

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Are you “slim,” “medium,” or “stout?” The conductor will decide.

This 1917 train ticket from our Denver & Rio Grande Railway file has a hole-punch area for a physical description of the passenger. The conductor would mark whether the passenger was male or female; tall, medium, or short; and slim, medium, or stout. The purpose of this, presumably, was to cut down on ticket-stealing and ticket-transferring, not to humiliate the passenger. One hopes.

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CC faculty ball team, 1896

Did they play baseball or softball? We’re not sure. From left to right: Professor Lewis Ahlers (German), right field; Dean Edward S. Parsons (English), pitcher; Reverend Philip Washburn, first base; Professor Florian Cajori (Physics), left field; Professor Arthur Stearns (Elocution), catcher; Professor Francis W. Cragin (Geology), second base; Librarian Manly Ormes, center field; Telegraph Editor Charles Sprague, third base; President Slocum, shortstop; two unidentified men. The women in the coach include (in no particular order) Flossie Dickerman, Nina Lunt, Regina Lunt, Faith Gregg, Mary Noble (CC class of 1896), Sara Jackson, Mary Slocum at far right, possibly Mabel Stearns, and one unidentified woman. The connection of these women to the college is for the most part uncertain. Click the image for a high-resolution, downloadable version.

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A 1536 Dante to go with our 1491 Dante

In August of 2011, we purchased a 1536 edition of Dante’s Divine Comedy for use alongside our 1491 edition, a donation from Jane Carruthers Hale in memory of her father John A. Carruthers. A great many versions of the Comedy were published in the early years of printing, perhaps as many as 40 editions between 1472 and 1550. Both of our editions have woodcut illustrations: at right you can see two renderings of Lucifer devouring Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot.

The image on the left is from the verso of leaf 142 of the 1491 edition; the image on the right is from the verso of leaf 189 of the 1536 edition. Yes, the 1536 edition has some discolorations. How do you think we could afford it? We don’t mind.

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Recipe box and scrapbook

In August of 2007, the Residential Life office donated a box of recipes and a scrapbook found in the basement of Bemis Hall, CC’s women’s dormitory built in 1908. Bemis had its own dining hall until 2001. This new acquisition gives us a taste (so to speak) of what CC women students might have eaten around 1920. Index cards show recipes for dishes such as Ham Balls, Raw Parsnip Salad, and “Fluffy Surprise” (pictured). The scrapbook contains handwritten breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus for 1919-1920, along with recipes clipped from newspapers and a list of dormitory rules such as “Students are asked not to turn the bath room into a laundry.”

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