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            For the fourth time, DeKalb, Illinois, and the Founders Memorial Library at Northern Illinois University hosted the Horatio Alger Society for its annual convention, this year held from Thursday, May 1 to Sunday, May 4. Host Matthew Short (PF-1161), Associate Professor, Head of Technical Services in the library, did much to make members’ stay in DeKalb a pleasant and enjoyable one. The library’s large staff lounge served as a hospitality room and meeting area for everyone, and it was well stocked with drinks and various snacks.

Thursday
            The Society’s Board of Directors’ meeting took place Thursday afternoon. Nearby restaurants provided venues for members to enjoy dinner on their own, and afterwards, they congregated in the staff lounge for talk, snacks, and drinks. As is his custom, Bob Sipes (PF-1067) set up his laptop to record and log in books for the annual convention auction. This was a lengthy process, for thanks to the generosity of H.A.S. members, hundreds of books had been donated.

Friday
            On Friday morning, Fred Barnhart, Northern Illinois Libraries Dean, and H.A.S. President Carol Nackenoff welcomed Society members to the campus and to the library. Following their introductory remarks, three former Horatio Alger Society Fellows presented PowerPoint talks on their NIU Library research projects. The H.A.S. Repository Endowment financially supports scholars doing research in the library’s American Popular Literature collection, and these three academicians made excellent use of their time on campus. The first Fellow was Emily Coccia from Carleton College, who spoke on “Textually Queer: Nineteenth Century Sensation Fiction and Workingwomen’s Reading Cultures.”

            The second speaker was Fredrik Stark (Texas A&M University, Kingsville), who spoke on “Reflections: Speech Varieties in Contact in Nineteenth-Century Popular Fiction: Analyzing Dialogue in Sea Adventures by Dime Novelist Roger Starbuck.” Rounding out the list of speakers was Melissa Adams-Campbell, Professor of English at Northern Illinois University, who had researched and found “56 Beadle dime novels with possible Native women characters.”

            Following the talks by the three Alger Fellows, Beth McGowan, Rare Books and Special Collections Librarian, led a tour of the Horatio Alger Repository and American Popular Literature Collection.  Society members particularly enjoyed seeing the numerous rare Algers on the shelves, all arranged by publisher. A highlight was seeing the library’s copy of Timothy Crump’s Ward, published as a paperback by A. K. Loring in 1866. The only other known copy in this format is at the New York Public Library

            Beth and Melissa showed us the workings of the library’s Book Lab, “a hands-on space dedicated to exploring the history, technology, and future of books.” Melissa demonstrated the Book Lab’s working replica of a 17th-century printing press, as well as the “Line-O-Scribe,” a small letterpress printing machine that was marketed to businesses in the mid-twentieth century. According to the International Printing Museum, “Retail signs could be made cheaply, neatly, and in-house with the Line-O-Scribe,” allowing store owners to “announce and show new merchandise quickly.”

            Other activities that students explore in the Book Lab include the art of quill cutting (a quill is the Medieval writing instrument), bookmaking, bookbinding, and traditional printing techniques. As Melissa said in an interview, “These transformational learning experiences allow students to take a long view of the rapidly evolving media and communications landscape. . . . We aim to educate the public about manuscripts, printed and digital books, book arts, and AI” (Artificial Intelligence).

            Following the excellent box lunches from Einstein Bros. Bagels, the library’s Preservation Coordinator, Sata Prescott, described and demonstrated procedures necessary to preserve the treasures of the library, which are accomplished through both conservation and digitization. For instance, he held a rare book, literally falling apart, and showed how its signatures are sewn (and how they needed to be re-sewn). Sata’s demonstration continued into the Digitization Lab, where he showed how the  library’s camera and DT Atom bench work.

            What was particularly interesting was Sata’s discussion of how staff members chose which items to repair and which ones to leave as is. For example, what about marks and marginalia?  He explained that they removed marks made on works after the library acquired them—such as call numbers written in pencil—but they left the occasional drawings and notes of previous owners since they represented significant parts of an item’s history. 

            Friday afternoon was devoted to the annual consignment/donation auction. A first edition of Rupert’s Ambition brought in the highest price for a single volume, $250.00, and dozens of beautiful books quickly got snapped up. 

Saturday
            Host Matt Short organized a behind-the-scenes library tour after the book sale on Saturday morning. He said that “I took everyone on the same journey a book takes after it’s donated: from boxes and sorting in the basement, where we have our compact shelving; to cataloging and processing in Technical Services; to the shelves in the Annex on the Fourth Floor, where we keep the dime novel collection.”

            Saturday afternoons during conventions are generally reserved for tours of local attractions, and this year Matt set up a guided tour of the Ellwood House Mansion in DeKalb. The house was originally built for barbed-wire entrepreneur Isaac Ellwood, and it was home to three generations of the Ellwood family from 1879 to 1965. Members particularly enjoyed seeing the “Little House,” measuring 13 by 15 feet and located at the rear of the mansion. Built in 1892, the daughters of Isaac Ellwood’s son, Will, used it as a playhouse.

            The Saturday evening banquet was held in the Sky Room, at the top of the Holmes Student Center on the 16th floor, whose large windows offered expansive views of the city below. The keynote speaker was Dr. Mark Van Wienen, professor of 19th- and 20th-century American literature at NIU. One of his many professional interests is the railroad in literature and culture, and he spoke on “A Railroad Runs Through It: Dime Novels Version.”

            Another feature of the annual banquet is the presentation of the Society’s awards. In keeping with Horatio Alger’s ideals of hard work, self-reliance, perseverance, and strength of character, each year the Society presents its “Strive & Succeed Award” to a student who possesses these traits and who could be a typical “Alger hero” in one of the author’s books. This year’s winner was Leyla Yaman, who works in NIU’s Special Collections and Archives. Her supervisor, who nominated her for this award, wrote: “Despite substantial challenges early in life, Leyla has excelled as an NIU student and as a member of the Special Collections and Archives team. Leyla’s significant emotional and eventual economic burdens stem from the early loss of a parent and subsequent strained ties with other family members, necessitating an impressive level of resilience and subsequent strained ties with other family members, necessitating an impressive level of resilience and self-motivation.”

            According to the Society’s bylaws, the Newsboy Award (now aptly renamed the “William R. Gowen Newsboy Award”) is given to an H.A.S. member “who has demonstrated significant or outstanding efforts in researching and presenting written analyses about Horatio Alger, Jr. and his works or those of other boys’ and girls’ books.” This year’s winner was David Kirk Vaughan, author of articles in Newsboy and the book Flying Adventurers: Juvenile Aviation Series Books in America, 1909–1964 (McFarland, 2023). H.A.S. Executive Secretary Bob Sipes awarded the plaque in absentia to David, “in recognition of his exceptional dedication to advancing the legacy of Horatio Alger, Jr. and his contemporaries through meticulous research and insightful articles published in Newsboy regarding juvenile aviation series books.”

            The president of the Horatio Alger Society has the privilege of honoring a Society member with a “President’s Award.” Outgoing President Carol Nackenoff surprised Jack Bales with a handsome plaque, which states that it is presented to Jack Bales, “who recently stepped into the role of Newsboy Editor with energy, enthusiasm, and imagination and who served in whatever capacity the Society has asked of him including hosting his fourth H.A.S. convention in 2024.”

Sunday
            The banquet was the last official convention activity, and Sunday was reserved for guests to have breakfast on their own before heading home. 

“Dash to DeKalb IV”: Attendance List
            Many thanks to Matt Short for arranging such a fine convention for members of the Horatio Alger Society. Below is a list of registered attendees and their affiliation, compiled by him. From Matt: “Partial registrants (one or more meals) have been marked with a star. This list does not include banquet guests, since they did not register. Some NIU faculty and students also attended the panel and tour on Friday who did not register.”

Melissa Adams-Campbell, H.A.S. Fellow
Jack Bales (PF-258)
*Fred Barnhart, NIU Libraries Dean
Terry Booth (PF-1150)
Emily Coccia, H.A.S. Fellow
*Gwen Gregory, NIU Libraries Associate Dean
Janet Hedrick (PF-1164)
Richard Hoffman (PF-570)
Liane Houghtalin (PF-699)
Robert Huber (PF-841)
Debby Jones (PF-1092)
Robert E. Kasper (PF-327)
Demian Katz (PF-1130)
James Keeline (PF-898)
*Beth McGowan, NIU Libraries Rare Books Librarian
Carol Nackenoff (PF-921)
Robert Petitto (PF-1086)
*Sata Prescott, NIU Libraries Preservation Coordinator
Matthew Short (PF-1161)
Robert G. Sipes (PF-1067)
Fredrik Stark, H.A.S. Fellow
Jennifer Tate (PF-1166)
*Mark Van Wienen, Keynote speaker
*Leyla Yaman, Strive & Succeed Award winner