In 2006 wishing to honor Appalachian Intelligence, Library Director Dr. Allan Pollchik established the Special Collection on Religious
Tolerance with a $10,000 gift from Dan Brown, author of the Da Vinci Code.
Although Quinn Library is small, like the people we honor, our
accomplishments are substantial, and this compendium competes with
collections at much larger institutions. The jewels of the Special
Collection are the rare books in the five climate controlled cases. Only
four of the rare books are shown on this page; look in the cases for the
other named books! Quinn Library is the only library
in the world that owns the book by Reelant (Item I), and we own one of
only two existing copies of the books by Limborch (Item B) and Kant
(Item L).
During the planning stages, Dr. Pollchik sought a topic
that was both currently and historically meaningful, ultimately
selecting religious tolerance -- a burning social issue since the
Enlightenment. After hundreds of years of bloody struggle between
Catholics and Muslims, Protestant and Jewish philosophers of that period
suggested the "radical" idea of tolerating people of other religions. For
suggesting this, they were exiled, excommunicated, pilloried, or worse,
but toleration became and integral part of Western civilization. Among
the earliest philosophers in this movement were Locke (Item A ).
Bayle (Item C), Voltaire (Item F.1, F.2), and Spinoza (Item G). Included
among the authors of our rare books are Grotius (Item E), who extended
these ideas into the international sphere, and early writers Defoe (Robinson
Crusoe) and Montaigne (inventor of the essay), whose fame resides
more with their literary accomplishments Items H, D). The idea of a
religiously tolerant society continued to develop in Western countries,
and seminal books by Rousseau (Item K), Montesquieu (Item J), and Paine
(Item N) demarcated the topic in the 18th century. The 19th century saw
Findley (Item N), Mill (Items O.1, O.2, O.3), and Spencer (Items P.1,
P.2, P.3) extend our understanding. The books of the major 20th century
philosophers, Rawls (Item Q), Foucault (Items R.1, R.2, R.3), Nozick
(Item S) and Arendt (Item T), are not yet rare, but our collection is
preserving them for future generations of scholars.
