PHOTOGRAPH BY HATSUE
“This one’s my favorite,” says head librarian Elizabeth Meyer, pointing to a snow globe that’s bafflingly bare, save for a top hat, charcoal buttons, and carrot—but you get the joke when you read the cheeky inscription: Miami Snowman. It’s just one of more than 200 globes that line the bookshelves of the University of Cincinnati’s Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP) Library.
The decor tradition traces its roots back to 1983, when a library employee brought in the first specimen, also from Florida: a bikini-clad woman standing on a surfboard, pulled by a speedboat. The saucy snow globe was filled with glitter, rather than water, but that didn’t stop the library’s patrons from going on the hunt for more. When someone brought a “Gateway to the West” paperweight home from a visit to St. Louis, the anomaly became a collection in earnest.
DAAP co-op students have turned the library into an veritable encyclopedia of the world. When there were simply too many to contain, library staff moved them to the bookshelves, where they sit today, representing almost all 50 states, as well as China, Italy, and England (just to name a few). Thirty years later, donations are still happily accepted by library staff.
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