Although writing systems began to appear 5000 years ago, their history is not well known. A new exhibition called A History of Writing and Its Material Culture is open at the Library Writing Center (LIB 162). Beginning with cuneiform and extending through keyboards, the exhibition reveals the development of writing tools and tablets throughout the ages. Check out a clay tablet inscribed with a schoolboy’s lesson from 3000 BCE in which he details “what I learned today.” A hornbook reveals how colonial children learned to write. Papyrus, parchment, birchbark, and paper illustrate writing surfaces. Funded through a College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHaSS) grant, the exhibition demystifies and explains the development of writing and vintage typewriters and a child’s “chiclet” style computer.
This story of writing includes interactive sections in which visitors can add their own stories and histories or take a quiz on “where in the world did writing develop?” Library staff Shay Larson and Devin Greener were instrumental in its production. Kendall Becker and Susan Andersen, directors of USU’s Writing Centers, helped mount the exhibition. Susan says, “This exhibition really reinforces that this space is all about writing and writers.” Source material for the exhibition was derived from a new book, A Writing Studies Primer, written by Joyce Kinkead, Distinguished Professor of English.
The Library Writing Center is open Monday through Friday, from 9:40 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. A special opening is scheduled during USU’s Student Research Symposium, April 12-13 2022. Participants and those attending sessions are particularly invited to stop in. Look for the super-sized pencil!
Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed is a graduate student in his second year, pursuing a doctorate in sociology at USU. He recently helped survey Utahns to see if environmental concerns affect the decision to have children.
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