As a Yale University doctoral student back in the early 1990s, Jenn Spock discovered Ohio State and its Hilandar Research Library (HRL) as an unparalleled resource for her research on Russia’s Solovki Monastery from 1460 to 1645, particularly as she was in search of two manuscripts that were difficult to access.
Over the past three decades, though, Spock’s relationship with HRL has grown and deepened to include not only supporting her ongoing research, but also informing her teaching, connecting her with graduate students from around the world at workshops, inviting her to serve on HRL’s advisory board … and even helping her find a wedding dress.
When first visiting HRL, Spock was impressed with its huge microfilm repository of materials from Hilandar Monastery on Mt. Athos, along with resources relating to Muscovy, the Russian Empire and Eastern Europe. “I was astounded at the wealth of medieval Slavic material available. Over the 30 years I have used the collection, its reputation has spread and it has become a resource not only for the field of pre-modern Slavic studies in the U.S. and Canada, but throughout Europe.”
HRL has the world’s largest collection of medieval Slavic Cyrillic manuscripts on microform. Scholars can use over a million pages of manuscript material on microform from more than 100 private, museum and library collections in dozens of countries. Its holdings include microfilms from Hilandar Monastery; more than 700 early Slavic imprints on microform; a 10,000-volume reference collection; more than 77 original Cyrillic manuscripts, fragments and early printed books; a Mount Athos slide collection; and much more.
“Not only is HRL an extraordinary resource, it is a supportive environment in which to work,” Spock says. In fact, she calls Mary Allen (Pasha) Johnson, HRL curator, “one of the most helpful colleagues I have ever encountered. Her help with my work and the work of many colleagues has been essential to numerous careers. I often joke that Pasha and Pred (Predrag Matejic, professor emeritus) are national treasures, but I am serious when I say that. Their wide knowledge of medieval Slavica is extraordinary.”
The feeling is mutual. Johnson says Spock, who is now a professor in the Department of History, Philosophy and Religious Studies at Eastern Kentucky University, is a resource for attendees from around the world who come to HRL’s biennial Medieval Slavic Summer Institute. “Basically, we co-opted her,” Johnson says. “Since 2006 at all of our summer institutes, she has worked with graduate students who work with medieval manuscripts. It’s remarkable that in her three-hour lecture, most of the participants go from not being able to read the cursive Cyrillic alphabet to being able to make out what is written. It’s a real ‘aha’ moment for them.”
Reading the elaborate Russian cursive script is a difficult skill to acquire, agrees Spock. “It has been a joy to share that skill with budding scholars, to meet them again at conferences over the years, and to share with them tips for handling the job market and what it’s like to work in an academic department. It is one of the great delights of my career that I have been asked to teach the practicum at each institute since then.”
“The library is not only a resource for her, but she is a resource at our institute,” Johnson says. “We brought her into our fold.”
The relationship even extends to a more personal level. Spock met her husband – who, coincidentally, is an Ohio State alumnus – at Eastern Kentucky. Six weeks before their wedding, she was in Columbus researching an article on Russian liturgical instructions. “One of the former HRL staff members was appalled I had not yet looked for a wedding dress and offered to help me find one,” she said. And so they did, one night that week, and the special dress hung safely in the HRL storage room until Spock returned to Kentucky.
Today, she says, “I am fortunate I live only a four-hour drive away, and that my husband happened to get his PhD In Japanese history at Ohio State. For us, visiting HRL and University Libraries means coming to our home away from home.”