The above is a graph generated by Excel from a table of the holdings for the general rare book collection at Princeton, commonly referred to as the Ex collection.
The x axis (horizontal) is date of publication. The y axis (vertical) is the number of books in the Ex collection with that date.
Of course, the obvious question to ask is: “What does this graph tell us about the general character of the collection?”
On the one hand, there is an expected answer. The number of books held in the collection and printed in a given year rises over time from the beginning of printing in the 15th century down to the present. This enlarging curve is comparable to the standard graph of all books produced worldwide from the beginning of printing down to the present. Print production follows the curve of expanding world population. It makes sense that as there are more books produced for a given year, there are more books collected.
However, if you look closely, you will see spikes at the following points: 1640s, 1680s, 1770s, 1790s, and the 1860s.
Q. What is the reason for these spikes?
A. War, revolution, and the threat of revolution.
The collections have long had a bias toward books printed in either Great Britain or the United States. Such were the cultural origins of many of past donors and providers of endowments. Recovering origins has long been a characteristic of collecting. But these reasons would only account for general trends.
More specifically, war and revolution are periods that produce a surge in the production of print. Contest and controversy accelerate communication. When it is over, however, it makes sense that there are those who seek to recover what has been lost and determine what has come about afterwards by collecting. Their collecting follows the publishing patterns of war, revolution, and the fear of revolution.
1640s – The English Civil War generated innumerable pamphlets
1680s – Restoration of Protestant monarchs to the English throne
1770s – War in the British Colonies in North America
1790s – Fear in England of the invasion of French revolutionary ideas as well as of Napoleon’s army
1860s – Civil War in the US / War between the States