A book checked out of the library in New Bedford, Massachusetts was returned recently, more than 119 years after it was first checked out.
On Valentine’s Day 1904, an unidentified person took “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity,” by Scottish scientist James Clerk Maxwell, first published in 1881, out of the New Bedford Free Public Library — but never brought it back.
Over the ensuing century, the book eventually made its way into the collection of West Virginia University, where the curator of rare books noticed that while it was overdue, it had not been marked “withdrawn.”“This is a new one for me too. I told [them] I’d be happy to pack it up and send it back and that’s what I did,” curator Stewart Plein told WBOY-TV.
The book was still in good condition, indicating to New Bedford library staff that it had been kept as part of a family collection. “This came back in extremely good condition. Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape and probably got passed down in the family,” New Bedford Free Public Library Director Olivia Melo told the Associated Press Friday.
The library has a five-cents-a-day late fee — but it caps out at $2. If the cap was not in place, the return of the 19th-century guide to what was then the new science of electricity would have cost a person over $2,100.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Extremely overdue book returned to Massachusetts library 119 years laterA Massachusetts library is celebrating the return of a book more than a century after it was last checked out
Read more »
Long Overdue Book Returned To Massachusetts Library 119 Years LaterThe Wright brothers had conducted their first airplane flight the year prior to when the overdue book was last in the Massachusetts library.
Read more »
Extremely overdue book returned to Massachusetts library 119 years laterA Massachusetts library is celebrating the return of a book more than a century after it was last checked out.
Read more »
Extremely overdue book returned to Massachusetts library 119 years laterOn Feb. 14, 1904, someone curious about the emerging possibilities of a key force of nature checked out James Clerk Maxwell's “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity” from the New Bedford Free Public Library.
Read more »
Extremely overdue book returned to Massachusetts library 119 years laterA Massachusetts library is celebrating the return of a book more than a century after it was last checked out
Read more »
Extremely overdue book returned to Massachusetts library 119 years laterA Massachusetts library is celebrating the return of a book more than a century after it was last checked out
Read more »