A book published in 1858 has been returned to a public library in Australia an estimated 150 years after it was borrowed. The volume, Antiquities of Athens, was discovered inside a tea crate that had been bricked into a sealed fireplace during a home renovation in the town of Kiama, south of Sydney.
An Unprecedented Return
Library manager Michelle Hudson said the library had never received such an old book back. “We’ve never had anything that old come back to us,” she said. “I follow lots of libraries on social media and often you’ll get things that are maybe 30 or 40 years old when they’re cleaning out estates and stuff like that.”
The man who found the book did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Massive Late Fee
Hudson calculated that the late return fine, adjusted for inflation, would be about A$28,000 (US$19,500). That figure is based on the British three pence per week overdue fee printed inside the cover, along with a list of rules from when the library opened in 1872.
Borrower Unknown
However, the identity of the final borrower remains a mystery. The library journal from the 1870s that recorded borrowing activity has been lost. “Unfortunately, we have a missing link. There’s nothing in the book that tells us who the last borrower was,” Hudson said.
Library rules at the time required a book to be returned and the debt paid before another could be borrowed. “Maybe that’s why they never returned it to us,” she added. Under the old rules, a household could borrow up to three books if at least six members were “known to be able to read”.
Book’s New Home
The book, which shows water damage from its years under a chimney, is marked as No. 506 in the library’s original collection of about 1,000 books. Hudson believes it was lost within a few years of the library opening. The returned volume will be kept in the local history collection. “We’re not going to allow it to go back out again. We don’t want to wait another 150 years for this book to be returned,” she said.
