"Overdue Fee of 2.74 Million Won"... Book Borrowed During WWI Returned After 120 Years in the US

Bookbinding and Other Factors Keep Book Storage Condition 'Excellent'

A book borrowed from a public library in the United States during the World War I era in the 1900s was returned after 120 years.

A book returned to the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts, USA, after about 120 years. It bears a stamp indicating it was purchased in March 1882.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the New York Times (NYT) and others on the 9th (local time), the New Bedford Public Library in Massachusetts received a notice on May 30th from a person in charge of managing rare books at the West Virginia University library stating, "Recently, a donation including your library's collection has arrived."

The book that returned to this library was a 208-page volume titled "A Treatise on Electricity," published in 1881, two years after the death of James Maxwell, a famous physicist from Scotland, United Kingdom.

Usually, libraries mark books that are no longer managed as part of their collection, often because they are sold externally, with a "release of ownership" label. However, this old book did not have such a mark, so the library inquired whether they wished to have it returned.

According to records, the library purchased this book in 1882. Additionally, based on the loan record stamps inside the book, it is estimated that it was last borrowed on either February 14, 1904, or February 14, 1905. Due to the passage of time, the stamp's color has faded, showing only "190" clearly, with the last digit faintly visible as a circular shape.

The previous loan record was dated December 10, 1903.

Regarding the return of a book printed 140 years ago, Director Olivia Melo explained, "Sometimes books are returned 10 or 15 years after being borrowed," but added, "This book likely holds the record for the longest overdue period."

The book is still readable and is known to be in very good binding condition, which surprised Director Melo, who said, "The book has been well preserved."

She added, "It seems someone has kept this book in a well-maintained place," and "There are no signs of pages being roughly flipped through."

The overdue fine for this book, calculated at 1 cent per day (about 13 won) at the time of borrowing, amounts to $430 (560,000 won), and at the current overdue rate of 5 cents per day (about 65 won), it would be about $2,100 (2,740,000 won).

However, the library set an overdue fine cap of $2 decades ago to allow borrowers to return books even if late.

Director Melo stated, "We will preserve this book well for the next 100 years," and "This book will remain here for future generations."

Meanwhile, last month, the "Bounty Trilogy" by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall, published together in 1932 and borrowed in the 1940s, was returned to a city library in Washington after 81 years. Also, in 2021, "Rebecca's Hidden Story" by Kate Douglas Wiggin was returned to an Idaho library after 110 years.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.