crocodile mystery
Card catalog holder-opener
Erin Blake explains how to use a mystery object when examining the card catalog.
"What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?": April 2024
This month’s Crocodile Mystery presents you with an object that is used in the library, but is not part of the library collection itself.
How to ask a reference question
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: February 2023
Twill tape, plus toggles, plus toggler, equals quick-ties
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: December 2022
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: November 2022
This month crocodile mystery comes from John Ward’s diary, V.a. 291, volume 8, leaf 18v. Can you decipher the highlighted text especially the first and last words of the sentence? Leave your attempts in the comments below and we’ll…
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: October 2022
There are many correct aspects to the answer to the question, “What manner of crocodile is this?” The more details you get, the higher your score! So see what you can piece together and we’ll be back next week to…
Frederick William MacMonnies, Shakespeare, circa 1895
Thanks for the great guesses about the object shown in the September Crocodile Mystery! Dawn Kiilani Hoffmann got it right. The photo shows the bottom of the bronze Shakespeare sculpture at the foot of the stairs from the Reading Room.…
“What manner o’ thing is your crocodile?”: September 2022
What manner o’ thing is this? Useless hint: like Antony’s eponymous crocodile, “It is shaped… like itself, and it is as broad as it hath breadth.” It does not, however, move “with it own organs.” Have a guess? Leave a…
Stealing Signs
Thanks to everyone who shared their guesses on last week’s post and congratulations to those of you who guessed correctly! Sermo mirabilis: or the silent language by Charles de La Fin, London, 1693. Folger call number: L174 The mystery image…