Library houses collection of diving history treasures
BY ROBERT SILK Free Press Staff
rsilk@keysnews.com
[SIZE=+0]ISLAMORADA -- Spend a moment in the newly completed Bauer Diving History Research Library at the Florida Keys History of Dive Museum and it becomes easy to imagine that you're somewhere else -- like a northeastern university library, or a regal Victorian parlor.
The wood-paneled floors are part of the allure. So are the bookshelves made of red oak, which were modeled after the shelves in the home of the late German composer Richard Wagner -- though his weren't elevated 18 inches in case of a hurricane.
But the real draw is the books themselves, a collection of some 2,000 volumes, many of them rare, all of which relate to the history of undersea exploration.
Diving museum co-founder Sally Bauer, who brought the library about by donating the collection she and late husband Joe accumulated over 50 years, estimates that 200 of the volumes predate 1900.
"These kind of things document not just diving, but life," she said in an interview at the library last week.
Among the treasures of the collection is its oldest book, the 1535 Latin volume, "De Re Militari," written by Flavius Vegetius, Curiously, the script in the book never mentions diving at all, Bauer said. But the volume does feature drawings of hooded divers working several feet below the surface.
Another unique volume at the library, which opened on Feb. 29, is "Loss of the Royal George," published in 1843. The book tells of the extraordinary endeavour divers made to remove the Royal George, which sank in 1782, from the shipping passage it was blocking in the south of England. The text is bound with wood from the Royal George itself.
Slightly more familiar to most might be another highlight of the collection, a first edition 1873 volume of Jules Verne's famed science fiction novel, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." And 1891's "Ocean World," written by French scientist Louis Figuier, features detailed drawings of people engaged in sponge diving as well as gathering coral beneath the sea.
Not all of the texts at the Bauer library are antiques, however. The collection also contains plenty of recent books on topics that span the story of man's effort to explore, and sometimes exploit, the sea. There are sections on frogmen, whaling and underwater archeology, to name a few. There's also a section on the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, the Spanish galleon whose discovery by Mel Fisher off Key West in 1985 yielded a mother lode of $450 million in treasure.
The library's shelves also contain a children's section.
Bauer said she wants the library so serve as a resource for scholars, researchers and members of the dive museum. But it's also available to anyone from the general public who would like to spend some time reading and experiencing the collection that she and her late husband so affectionately assembled. Visits to the library must be arranged in advance so that a curator will be present.
"It's a research library that has been accumulated for you, where you can come and learn about man's entry into the sea," Bauer said.
The Bauer Diving History Research Library was opened with the help of a $74,000 matching grant from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. To learn more, donate, or schedule an appointment, call the Florida Keys History of Dive Museum at 664-9737.
rsilk@keysnews.com[/SIZE]
BY ROBERT SILK Free Press Staff
rsilk@keysnews.com
[SIZE=+0]ISLAMORADA -- Spend a moment in the newly completed Bauer Diving History Research Library at the Florida Keys History of Dive Museum and it becomes easy to imagine that you're somewhere else -- like a northeastern university library, or a regal Victorian parlor.
The wood-paneled floors are part of the allure. So are the bookshelves made of red oak, which were modeled after the shelves in the home of the late German composer Richard Wagner -- though his weren't elevated 18 inches in case of a hurricane.
But the real draw is the books themselves, a collection of some 2,000 volumes, many of them rare, all of which relate to the history of undersea exploration.
Diving museum co-founder Sally Bauer, who brought the library about by donating the collection she and late husband Joe accumulated over 50 years, estimates that 200 of the volumes predate 1900.
"These kind of things document not just diving, but life," she said in an interview at the library last week.
Among the treasures of the collection is its oldest book, the 1535 Latin volume, "De Re Militari," written by Flavius Vegetius, Curiously, the script in the book never mentions diving at all, Bauer said. But the volume does feature drawings of hooded divers working several feet below the surface.
Another unique volume at the library, which opened on Feb. 29, is "Loss of the Royal George," published in 1843. The book tells of the extraordinary endeavour divers made to remove the Royal George, which sank in 1782, from the shipping passage it was blocking in the south of England. The text is bound with wood from the Royal George itself.
Slightly more familiar to most might be another highlight of the collection, a first edition 1873 volume of Jules Verne's famed science fiction novel, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea." And 1891's "Ocean World," written by French scientist Louis Figuier, features detailed drawings of people engaged in sponge diving as well as gathering coral beneath the sea.
Not all of the texts at the Bauer library are antiques, however. The collection also contains plenty of recent books on topics that span the story of man's effort to explore, and sometimes exploit, the sea. There are sections on frogmen, whaling and underwater archeology, to name a few. There's also a section on the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, the Spanish galleon whose discovery by Mel Fisher off Key West in 1985 yielded a mother lode of $450 million in treasure.
The library's shelves also contain a children's section.
Bauer said she wants the library so serve as a resource for scholars, researchers and members of the dive museum. But it's also available to anyone from the general public who would like to spend some time reading and experiencing the collection that she and her late husband so affectionately assembled. Visits to the library must be arranged in advance so that a curator will be present.
"It's a research library that has been accumulated for you, where you can come and learn about man's entry into the sea," Bauer said.
The Bauer Diving History Research Library was opened with the help of a $74,000 matching grant from the Monroe County Tourist Development Council. To learn more, donate, or schedule an appointment, call the Florida Keys History of Dive Museum at 664-9737.
rsilk@keysnews.com[/SIZE]
