USC is home to the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, which is committed to preserving the materials in its collections and making them accessible to students, scholars and the wider community. Thirteen books published between 1634 and 1903 will be available for participants to peruse. Many of these, including "On the Origin of Species" are first editions and come from a mix of authors and topics well known to the scientific community, like Marie Curie, Charles Lyell, and Friedrich Mohs. Others celebrate the geology of South Carolina, including a textbook from Joseph LeConte, past president of GSA and geology professor of USC (also a namesake of one of USC's buildings).

An illustration from the Vatican's 1719 collection of metal and fossils. The Latin inscription reads "A rock in which terrestrial shells are born."

Provenance: Katherine Ryker, University of South Carolina-Columbia
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

An illustration of fossils from William Smith (1816), including a belemnite, bivalve pieces, an ammonite, and two tubeworms.

Provenance: Katherine Ryker, University of South Carolina-Columbia
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Meet at the registration table to walk over for a 30 minute guided introduction to the collection followed by optional free time to explore! Due to space limitations, we will cap this to the first 15 people to show up. However, the books will be on display throughout the week in the Smith Reading Room (open 10am-3pm Monday through Thursday) in case you miss out!

Books on Display

• Elements of geology; a text-book for colleges and for the general reader, by Joseph LeConte (1878)
• Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world : under the command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N., by Charles Darwin (1845)
• Michaelis Mercati Samminiatensis Metallotheca opus posthumum : auctoritate, & munificentiâ Clementis Undecimi Pontificis Maximi e ̀tenebris in lucem eductum, by Michele Mercati (1719)
  • Note: This is Mercati's description of his collection of minerals, fossils and other natural curiosities at the Vatican.
• On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life, by Charles Darwin (1859 - first edition, first issue)
• Principles of geology; being an attempt to explain the former changes of the earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation, by Sir Charles Lyell (1830-1833)
• Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles : où l'on rétablit les caractères de plusieurs animaux dont les révolutions du globe ont détruit les espèces, by Georges Cuvier (1821-1824)
• Recherches sur les substances radioactives, by Marie Curie (1903)
• Report on the geology of South Carolina, by Michael Tuomey (1848)
• Strata identified by organized fossils : containing prints on colored paper of the most characteristic specimens in each stratum, by William Smith (1816)
• The characters of the classes, orders, genera, and species; or, The characteristic of the natural history system of mineralogy. Intended to enable students of discriminate minerals on principles similar to those of botany and zoology, by Friedrich Mohs (1820)
• The distribution of heat over the surface of the globe : illustrated by isothermal, thermic isabnormal, and other curves of temperature, by Heinrich Wilhelm Dove (1853)
• The historie of the world : commonly called, The naturall historie of C. Plinius Secundus, by Pliny the Elder (1634)
• The physical geography of the sea, by Matthew Fontaine Maury (1855)