Like most YDS students, Stacie Vos does research in the library. But for Vos, the “library” is the venerable Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, and the resources with which she works are truly one-of-a-kind.
Over the course of a master’s thesis, a research fellowship, and employment at the Beinecke, Vos ’16 M.Div. has delved deeply into the archived collections held by Yale University. In the process, she has developed a taste for the thrilling discoveries one makes at the Beinecke—which is why she keeps going back.
“I like this idea of finding a product that hasn’t been worked on,” Vos says.
The Beinecke—which is available to all divinity school students—houses Yale’s world-class collection of manuscripts, rare books, and various literary papers and archives. The materials run the range of fields, from literature and theology to history and the natural sciences.
Take a look at Vos’ background and interests and the reason for her attraction to the Beinecke starts to become obvious. Initially an M.A.R. student in religion and literature, Vos transferred into the M.Div. program. She already holds an M.A. in education from Smith College in Massachusetts and has taught English in New Haven schools. Throughout her time at YDS, Vos has also taught courses at a community college in Bridgeport.
With an eye on a Ph.D. in English literature as the next step, Vos nonetheless remains firmly interdisciplinary, an approach she believes is fostered by the study of English.
“Literature brings things together,” Vos says.
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It was, after all, the study of literature that first introduced Vos to the Beinecke and the kind of work she could do there. Vos took a course in the English Department on Piers Plowman, an allegorical 14th century poem written in Middle English.
As part of the course, Vos was able to work with the first printed edition of the work—an experience she describes as her first encounter with book history.
It would not be her last. She looked into the possibility of writing a master’s thesis based on archived materials held at the Beinecke. In the spring of 2014, she was awarded a research fellowship from the Beinecke to help her undertake thesis research.
This research enabled Vos to make an original scholarly contribution while still a student. She wrote an entry on someone previously absent from the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which aims to comprehensively catalog figures from British history. Vos’ entry on Joan Drake, which grew out of her thesis research, will appear in the update to the dictionary coming out in September.
Vos appreciates the academic enterprise as an end in itself. But she also has a passion to take what she learns from research and make it accessible to the public.
As part of her work as a curatorial assistant at the Beinecke, Vos operates a blog, “The Bible at Beinecke,” that publicizes the library’s Bible collection. The blog allows her to work in a journalistic voice that helps make academic subjects understandable by a wide audience.
As an extension of her work with the blog, Vos has also held several public events at the Beinecke. She gave a talk earlier this year on the Gutenberg Bible. Following that, she organized and led a workshop in which she discussed various biblical and other religious texts in the Beinecke archives, including the library’s Tyndale Bibles.
Through these events, particularly the workshop, Vos hoped to inspire other students to think about ways they might be able to use the Beinecke collections in their research.
With these workshops and events, Vos also aims to impart a sense of the tactility that archival work provides. In museums, the artifacts are insulated behind glass. When she is in the archives, immediacy replaces insulation.
“There’s something to be said for holding a physical object that someone used,” says Vos.
She also appreciates that much of this research is done by browsing, and by serendipitous discoveries.
Indeed, all of her work on these original sources has stemmed from a kind of happenstance. Vos had never even been to the Beinecke before the Piers Plowman class, and book history was not something on her agenda when she came to YDS.
But now, says Vos, “it will be hard for me not to do this kind of research.”
Caleb Bedillion is a second year M.A.R. student studying religious ethics. After his time at YDS, he plans to continue a career in journalism.
Note: The Beinecke will be closed from May 2015 to September 2016 for a major renovation. Researchers will still have access to some Beinecke collection material through Sterling Memorial Library.