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In 2003, nearly a decade after the death of Jacob Van Ek, former CU Boulder political science professor and College of Arts and Sciences dean, the CU Heritage Center received an anonymous donation of his desk items — including a miniature English-Dutch dictionary, which stands two inches high and less than 1.5 inches wide. 

Mini books, , were popular throughout history as they allowed the reader to conveniently and discreetly carry knowledge. Van Ek and his wife may have used the dictionary on their global travels, said Mona Lambrecht, Heritage Center interim director and curator of its history and collections. 

After winning a year-long travel fellowship in 1928, Van Ek and his wife, Eve Drewelowe, traveled around the world to familiarize themselves with different peoples, countries and civilizations. During this time, they spent time in the Netherlands, where Van Ek’s parents were born. 

The couple returned from their travels in 1929, and Van Ek assumed his role as Arts and Sciences dean, a position he held at CU Boulder for 30 years before teaching full time for several more years.

The experience left him with a broad worldview. 

According to the Jacob Van Ek collection housed in the Norlin Library, “When the ‘Red Scare’ gripped college campuses in the late 1940s and the 1950s, Dr. Van Ek won the respect and gratitude of his faculty and student body when he acted as a steadfast defender of freedom of expression.”

Facts about the dictionary: 

• Title: English-Dutch 12000 Words Liliput Dictionary 77

• Published by Schmidt & Günther

• Printed by F. E. Haag in Leipzig, Germany

• Published circa 1925

• 635 pages

• Dimensions: 1⅜ inches wide by 2 inches high by 3/8 inches deep

• Text 1/16 inches high

• Red linen fabric cover

• All the dictionaries published by Schmidt & Günther in this series have a number connected to them. The English-Dutch is number 77.

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Photos courtesy Mona Lambrecht, CU Heritage Center