Pages from Strong College Commonplace Books, 1996–1998

These links will take you to scanned images of a sample of commonplace book pages, and they will allow you to get a feel for the character of these delightful volumes (and to read the first installments of the immortal “Legend of the Lost City of the Lemurs”). Each image is about 160K; you must use the “back” function on your browser to return to this index after viewing each image. Nearly every common room in Strong College was supplied with a commonplace book, and all of the commonplace books were inscribed with this epigraph adapted from Thomas Traherne and beautifully set to music by Gerald Finzi:

An empty book is like an Infant’s Soul, in which anything may be written; it is capable of all things, but containeth nothing. I have a mind to fill this with profitable wonders, and with those things which shall shew my Love. Things strange, yet common; most high, yet plain: infinitely profitable, but not esteemed; truths you love, but know not.

¶ For general notes on the value of college commonplace books see the Collegiate Way’s page on college life and the annual cycle (section 3.2.5).

Junior Common Room, Vol. 1 (September 1996–April 1998)

• title page
• pp. 2–3
• pp. 4–5
• pp. 6–7
• pp. 8–9
• pp. 10–11
• pp. 12–13
• pp. 14–15
• pp. 16–17
• pp. 18–19