Rare
Books
Koger
History
of
Science
Collection
Bookplate
of the Koger Collection
he
Mr. and Mrs. J. A. Koger History of Science Collection, established in 1963,
includes approximately 1,000 titles and 1,400 volumes.
Primarily scientific literature of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and
nineteenth centuries, it was acquired to support the research needs of the
university. Mrs. Koger, an early settler
of Lubbock County, funded the collection with a gift of $62,000.
This amount, equivalent in today's money to nearly $500,000, was well spent, for
it has provided Texas Tech University with some of its most important and rare
items. Significant works include the
second edition of Nicolaus Copernicus' On
the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres.
(De Revolvtionibus Orbium
Cælestium. Basileae:
Ex Officina Henricpetrina, 1566), the first edition in English of Isaac
Newton's Principia (The
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy. London: for Benjamin Motte,
1729), and the first edition of Charles Darwin's
On the Origin of the Species (London:
J. Murray, 1859).
The Koger Collection also contains three incunables, which are books printed
before 1501: a 1488 edition of Arithmetic
by Boethius (Arithmetica Boetii.
Augsburg: E. Ratdolt, 1488), a 1489 edition of Saint Augustine's
City of God (Augustinus
De Ciuitate Dei.
Venice: O. Scoti, 1489),
and a 1492 edition of Saint John
Climacus' Ladder to Paradise, (Sancto
Iouanni Climacho Altrimenti Scala Paradisi. Venice: da Mandelo, 1492).
All the books in the Koger Collection have the book plate shown above. The
stylistic floral drawing evokes the Desert Rose Farm, the Koger residence in
Lubbock County.
For
additional information, please contact:
Rob E. King
rob.e.king@ttu.edu
(806) 834-0397