The book is fat and musty and bound in chestnut pony skin. Published in 1817 by Thomas Dobson and Son of Philadelphia, it describes Congressional wrangling over elections, the death of M. Guilliton, namesake of the guillotine, and a man with a horn growing out of his head.
All subjects of little interest to Catherine Rogers Arthur, curator of the Homewood House Museum at the Johns Hopkins University.
Still, one day last fall, as Arthur was visiting eBay.com, the Internet auction site, to see what was being offered for sale, a description of the old book caught her eye. Among other things, it said: "Charles Carroll Jr. signed book."
Couldn't possibly be, she thought.
She clicked anyway.
A detail of a signature from the front of the book popped up on her screen. Written in black ink, the name is scrawled in confident, angular script. Beneath it is the pale suggestion of a line -- a swoosh of ink added in haste.
Chas. Carroll Jr., it read -- the signature of the former master of Homewood House.
Arthur put in a bid. By the end of the auction, the book was hers for $77.
This is how a collection is improved, one small item at a time. It is how a biography of a man is assembled through artifacts, how the history of early Maryland is made tangible piece by piece.
Curators are charged with protecting and interpreting their collections, and in many cases, for augmenting them. In recent years, museum professionals like Arthur have discovered a new tool to aid them in their search for acquisitions: the Internet.
"It's one more source, a broader source in many cases. Often a curator is limited to the [antique] shows given in an area or the area in which he travels. You'd be less effective if you didn't take advantage of all the possibilities," says James Abbott, curator of decorative arts at the Baltimore Museum of Art, who surfs the Net every few weeks looking for possible acquisitions.
"On the other hand," he adds, "there is something great about being able to hold the object before making a decision."
At the Maryland Historical Society, curators purchased via eBay a James Brown album recorded in February 1964 and called, "Pure Dynamite Live at the Royal." They're planning on using it in an exhibition titled "Filming Maryland" that opens April 15, says Nancy Davis, deputy director of the museum.
