“Book Returned to Library after 110 Years: The Discovery Story Behind Benson Lossing’s History of the United States”

According to library director Chris Kreiden, the book was brought in by an unknown man. “Neither I nor any of the staff have any idea who the gentleman is. He just said something about his father, but we didn’t catch more,” Kreiden describes how the book got back.

It later turned out that the man was Jim Perry from the nearby town of Napa, and he found the book while going through his wife’s boxes. He believes that her grandfather, John McCormick, borrowed the volume at the time.

The fact that it is a title of History of the United States by Benson Lossing, which was published as early as 1892, is rather funny, so for today’s readers, but also for the library itself, it is already important mainly as a historical artifact, rather than serving as a serious source of information.

The book is pictured in the display case below

There is a note inside the book that it can only be borrowed for two weeks, but the volume, in a greatly impoverished condition, will no longer be available to other readers, the server informs People. The librarians assigned him a special showcase in which he decorates the space right at the entrance. And they add that if the fees for late returns were added up, today it would be something around 1,700 dollars, i.e. roughly 38,000 crowns.

Of course, the library will not collect this amount from anyone, on the contrary, the post on Instagram tries to motivate forgetful readers: “Here it turns out that it is never too late to return a book,” is written next to pictures of a small exhibition, the star of which is a book that is over 130 years old .