Side Lights on Management World Systems Railways
Title
Side Lights on Management World Systems Railways
Creator
Major Pangbourne
Publisher
Baltimore: J.G. Pangborn
Date
1901
Description
Side Lights on Management World Systems Railways was chosen for our "Damaged Books" event to demonstrate human added change in books, specifically, writing.
This book is a special keepsake to Flagler College as it was signed and dated by Henry M. Flagler in 1901. This is one of a handful of books known to have belonged to Mr. Flagler. While writing in books is normally considered damage and decreases the monetary value and visual appeal of a book, this book is an example of when the written provenance of a book inside the covers adds to the value (money and rarity).
Additional damage to this book includes bumped corners, library markings such as stamps and stickers, the ink bleeding through the page, and food particle stains. The paper is starting to turn yellow, indication of wood pulp paper acid. Furthermore, this book features silverfish damage to the spine and back cover.
This book is a special keepsake to Flagler College as it was signed and dated by Henry M. Flagler in 1901. This is one of a handful of books known to have belonged to Mr. Flagler. While writing in books is normally considered damage and decreases the monetary value and visual appeal of a book, this book is an example of when the written provenance of a book inside the covers adds to the value (money and rarity).
Additional damage to this book includes bumped corners, library markings such as stamps and stickers, the ink bleeding through the page, and food particle stains. The paper is starting to turn yellow, indication of wood pulp paper acid. Furthermore, this book features silverfish damage to the spine and back cover.
Identifier
SPECIAL HE1021 .P28 1901
Language
English
Relation
To see this book on November 14, 2019 in the "Event Photographs" Collection, please go here [Photograph of Books] IMG 1414.
Text
Why is there writing in my book?
The question the curator of Special Collections would ask you is, “what kind of writing do you have?” You may actually be looking at an author’s signature or inscription (a note accompanying the signature), which usually adds monetary value to your volume.
The other option is one or more owner’s signatures. This tells you the provenance of the book. Never remove, erase, or obliterate a person’s name written in a book – they may one day be famous and you have a valuable (monetarily-speaking and historically-speaking) tome in your collection.
Annotations by someone famous adds wow factor to a book, while annotations by you or I are just annoying to a serious collector. Less so in a rare book department because while they want a pristine copy of a book, they also like having some books with writing in them as a teaching tool - such as those on display!
If you find someone’s old grocery list written into the back of a book – that’s just rude! Or their math lesson - annoying. But what about hand-written recipes in a cookbook, like the one on display, well, actually that adds a lot of historical character to the book, while telling you something about the person who owned the book because you learn what was served in their home. Think of handwritten recipes as grease marks – you know which recipes were beloved and those tend to be good ones to reproduce.
The bottom line is that the kind of writing in the book dictates how desirable it is to have.
The question the curator of Special Collections would ask you is, “what kind of writing do you have?” You may actually be looking at an author’s signature or inscription (a note accompanying the signature), which usually adds monetary value to your volume.
The other option is one or more owner’s signatures. This tells you the provenance of the book. Never remove, erase, or obliterate a person’s name written in a book – they may one day be famous and you have a valuable (monetarily-speaking and historically-speaking) tome in your collection.
Annotations by someone famous adds wow factor to a book, while annotations by you or I are just annoying to a serious collector. Less so in a rare book department because while they want a pristine copy of a book, they also like having some books with writing in them as a teaching tool - such as those on display!
If you find someone’s old grocery list written into the back of a book – that’s just rude! Or their math lesson - annoying. But what about hand-written recipes in a cookbook, like the one on display, well, actually that adds a lot of historical character to the book, while telling you something about the person who owned the book because you learn what was served in their home. Think of handwritten recipes as grease marks – you know which recipes were beloved and those tend to be good ones to reproduce.
The bottom line is that the kind of writing in the book dictates how desirable it is to have.
_______
How can writing be prevented? // What should I do about writing?
Your first reaction might be, “well, we are never supposed to write in a book, that is vandalism!”
If you ask a famous author to autograph your book, you are making a conscious decision to have writing added to your book. If you write, “This book belongs to Phileas Thaddeus Maximilius,” than you are putting your stamp of ownership on the book. Same with a stamp that has your name, initial, family crest, etc. that you press onto the cover or a page(s). Books used to be very expensive and were considered luxury items showing how wealth a family was, so marking a book with some form of ownership mark was a display of pride and prestige. A little of that feeling influences our decisions today to write our names in our books.
If you are writing in a textbook or in a book you love by adding annotations, than you have made a conscious decision that what you are adding is more valuable than keeping the book in the condition it was in at the bookstore.
Do not just scribble in a book, get a journal or a notepad, or an artist book meant for those purposes. Adding writing to a book should be serious, deliberate, and thoughtful.
Do not erase your annotations or anyone else’s. And, certainly, NEVER try to hide an author’s signature or a former owner’s signature. At that point, you are just a book vandal!!!! If there is bleeding onto facing pages than place a piece of acid-free paper over that page so that the extra oils or graphite ends up on that and not on other pages. The problem with doing this though is that if there is writing on many pages, you will actually distort and damage the spine by adding paper to the book, so only add judiciously in the most egregious locations.
How can writing be prevented? // What should I do about writing?
Your first reaction might be, “well, we are never supposed to write in a book, that is vandalism!”
If you ask a famous author to autograph your book, you are making a conscious decision to have writing added to your book. If you write, “This book belongs to Phileas Thaddeus Maximilius,” than you are putting your stamp of ownership on the book. Same with a stamp that has your name, initial, family crest, etc. that you press onto the cover or a page(s). Books used to be very expensive and were considered luxury items showing how wealth a family was, so marking a book with some form of ownership mark was a display of pride and prestige. A little of that feeling influences our decisions today to write our names in our books.
If you are writing in a textbook or in a book you love by adding annotations, than you have made a conscious decision that what you are adding is more valuable than keeping the book in the condition it was in at the bookstore.
Do not just scribble in a book, get a journal or a notepad, or an artist book meant for those purposes. Adding writing to a book should be serious, deliberate, and thoughtful.
Do not erase your annotations or anyone else’s. And, certainly, NEVER try to hide an author’s signature or a former owner’s signature. At that point, you are just a book vandal!!!! If there is bleeding onto facing pages than place a piece of acid-free paper over that page so that the extra oils or graphite ends up on that and not on other pages. The problem with doing this though is that if there is writing on many pages, you will actually distort and damage the spine by adding paper to the book, so only add judiciously in the most egregious locations.
Original Format
Text taken from informational panel(s) created for the November 14, 2019 event.
Collection
Citation
Major Pangbourne, “Side Lights on Management World Systems Railways,” Damaged Books, accessed November 11, 2025, https://damagedbooks.omeka.net/items/show/114.