Overdue Library Book Checked Out in 1904 Returned to Massachusetts Library After 119 Years

James Clerk Maxwell’s An Elementary Treatise on Electricity made its way back to a Massachusetts library 119 years after it was checked out.

The overdue book was discovered by Stewart Plein, the curator of rare books and printed resources at West Virginia Universities Libraries, in a donation to the institute, The Herald-Dispatch reported.

Plein recognized that the overdue treatise was from the New Bedford Free Public Library and had not been stamped with “Withdrawn” to indicate that it was retired from the library. So he decided to return it.

The curator then notified Jodi Goodman, the special collections librarian at the New Bedford Free Public Library, of the treatise.

Olivia Melo, the director of the New Bedford Free Public Library, said of the work, “This came back in extremely good condition,” per The Herald-Dispatch.

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

The book was published in 1881, two years after the author died in 1879. Although it is quite old, Melo said that it is not considered a rare edition.

She said the library will typically receive books that are overdue by 10 or 25 years, but the treatise is the first to be over 100 years overdue, per the publication.

According to The Herald-Dispatch, the treatise was last in the New Bedford library in 1904 — when New York City’s first subway line began operating and Theodore Roosevelt won his second presidential term.

Alongside a New York Times article about the treatise, the New Bedford Free Public Library wrote on Facebook: “Our library has a unique story to be told through the return of this book, but it has long been of historic and architectural significance to our city. We are proud of the recognition it is getting now in this digital world to prove the permanence of the printed word.”

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Per The Herald-Dispatch, Melo added: “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.”

“It is still going to be here a hundred years from now,” said Melo. “The printed book is always going to be valuable.”