Massachusetts library book returned after 119 years

Massachusetts librarians were stunned when a 19th-century book was returned more than 119 years after it was checked out.

The book, James Clerk Maxwell’s “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity,” had somehow made its way to a donation pile in West Virginia, nearly 900 miles from its home at the New Bedford Free Public Library.

Stewart Plein, the curator of rare books at West Virginia University Libraries, plucked the centuries-old science book from the charity bin and noticed it had last been stamped “Withdrawn” in February 1904, indicating that it was incredibly overdue.

Plein immediately contacted Jodi Goodman, the special collections librarian in New Bedford, to alert her to the find and coordinate its long-awaited return to the Massachusetts library.

“This came back in extremely good condition,” New Bedford Public Library Director Olivia Melo said.

“Someone obviously kept this on a nice bookshelf because it was in such good shape and probably got passed down in the family.”

Though the book is not a rare edition of “An Elementary Treatise on Electricity,” the cranberry-colored hardcover is a relic of its time that New Bedford librarians are elated to welcome home.

The scientific text was published in 1881, two years after Maxwell’s death in 1879 and at a time when the world was still learning about the capabilities of electricity — Thomas Edison received a historic patent embodying the principles of his incandescent lamp in 1880.

The copy was acquainted by the New Bedford Library in 1882 and presumably changed hands dozens, if not hundreds, of times before it was checked out for more than a century in 1902.

Melo said the book’s long journey home is a testament to the durability of the printed word, especially in a time of computerization and instant access to unfathomable amounts of information.

“The value of the printed book is it’s not digital, it’s not going to disappear. Just holding it, you get the sense of someone having this book 120 years ago and reading it, and here it is in my hands,” she said. “It is still going to be here a hundred years from now. The printed book is always going to be valuable.”

Luckily, the passage of time has not come with a price.

The New Bedford library has a 5-cent-per-day late fee, meaning the 119 years of overdue fees would amount to more than $2,100 if the late fee didn’t max out at $2.

With Post Wires