This morning I was gazing at this picture, which I had scanned on March 20, 2014 and labeled “Glass Campus from West Hall, circa 1915.” (The “glass” is so I would remember that I found it with the glass plate negatives.)

Five years later I realize that it had to have been taken in 1916 rather than 1915. Can you see why? Oh what the heck, I’ll just tell you. It’s because the academic quad is set up for commencement, the first one of which did not occur until June 12, 1916.

This reminded me of something else that I scanned even earlier (December 12, 2012 to be exact) but never used here. This is a minuscule accounting correction, properly allocating the ninety-five cents spent at Teolin Pillot for a Bible to place in the cornerstone of the new West Hall. We have mountains of similar documents, by the way,  and they are so potently and blissfully soporific that they can only be approached a few at a time. I’m not sure that I’ve seen them all even now.

Although the Rice Institute library used the services of various New York and London book dealers, Teolin Pillot was our local supplier and probably the only serious bookstore in Houston during these early years. Here’s their ad in the 1916 Campanile:

Longtime Houstonians will recognize the Pillot name from the Henke and Pillot grocery stores. Teolin was part of the same family.

Bonus: The beginning of the end.