I graduated from the University of Rochester in 2013 with honors in History. I had returned to school to complete a degree that was beyond my reach when I was younger and was fortunate during my working career to be able to finally realize this ambition as a mature student. As such, I had the good fortune and financial wherewithal to have made choices of the courses I took based on interest of the content of the courses and not specifically with regards to the cost of textbooks assigned as required materials.
I personally witnessed students making course choices based on the affordability of materials rather than out of a passion for the course content. It is in this spirit that we began the Kelly Family History Book Fund, a scholarship book fund specifically addressing the needs of students in the Department of History who are struggling to afford the required materials as assigned to History courses.
I often viewed with amazement the accumulation of novels, texts and supporting materials in the offices of the professors who taught courses at the University and vowed, wherever possible, to retain my favorite texts as a start to my own home “library.” Little did I realize that my fledgling library would have a huge impact on my children as they progressed in their education, and that they would be the direct beneficiaries of the book collection.
I clearly recall an evening in 2018 where I observed my young son reading a passage from an online source as part of a homework assignment for a middle school history class. The excerpt was from the novel Candide by the 17th century French philosopher Voltaire. As it happens, I had a copy of that very novel on my bookshelf—retained in the collection of books I had purchased during my time as an undergraduate. It dawned on me that I had been fortunate to have been able to retain texts such as these on my shelves for my family to access. Furthermore, the prohibitive cost of keeping one’s favorite books from courses taken as an undergraduate meant that retaining favorite books and texts for use in a home “library” was, for a great many, out of the question from a cost perspective.
Handing over my copy of the novel, which included my own personal margin notes, led to several discussions about the text with my son. He quickly abandoned the online source in favor of the hard copy text. This text availability led to a much deeper understanding of the significance of these types of historical works by him. This past year he chose as his “summer reading” choices Of Mice and Men, Catch-22, and Animal Farm, all of which came from our home bookshelves. He has begun making his own margin notes—marking his favorite passages with comments and questions which are all his doing. This was for me a certain indication of the power of classical works of history and literature in textual for working in practical application.
I recall too, one specific text: Culture as History by the late Rutgers Professor Warren Susman. This was a text used extensively by Professor Robert Westbrook in the courses he taught on 20th century American history at the U of R. My copies of this book (I have at least 2) are replete with margin notes, folded corners and underlined passages that have helped shape my historical view of how culture in America has evolved. It is a seminal work in the field and having it available to reference was only possible because I could afford to retain it.
To that end, the Kelly Family History Book Fund seeks to encourage, where possible, students to explore the study of History as a passionate enterprise, free from the burden of worry regarding the “affordability” of materials. It is also my hope that a history student’s most favored books and course materials can be retained as I have done, and that students never have to choose between learning about history for financial reasons and not taking history courses at all.
I would like very much to never hear “I can’t take that history course because I can’t afford it.” Rather, the goal of the fund was to encourage prospective history students to say: “I need to take that course because I can’t afford not to.” Building a home library is generational. As in my case, when and where historical texts enter our lives is a mystery—a mystery that is only solved by having the materials readily on-hand. There is no substitute for books with margin notes and thoughts—those last a lifetime and are the product of time and energy well spent in pursuit of a history degree. The Kelly Family History Book Fund welcomes all contributions through the University of Rochester History Department as we grow this scholarship opportunity to reach all History students.
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The Kelly Family History Book Fund was established in September 2021 with the generous support of David Kelly ’13 and Ann Kelly. Many undergraduate students struggle with the expense of course materials, and the fund helps reduce this barrier for students studying history. Since January 2022, when it was first made available to students, the Kelly Family History Book Fund has provided over $2,200 worth of aid (in the form of 91 textbooks) to 22 undergraduate history students. We welcome contributions to this important fund. You can make a donation here.