Treasures of LSU a new book released from LSU Press in celebration of LSU sesquicentennial highlights the unique and valuable landmarks that surround the LSU campus and other areas in Baton Rouge.
The book edited by Laura F. Lindsay, interim dean of the LSU College of Education and professor emerita in the Manship School of Mass Communication, highlights 101 artworks, artifacts, gems and collections that surround the LSU campus. The book has articles written by 50 different authors.
Gresdna Doty, professor emerita in the LSU Department of Theatre, first presented the idea for the book several years ago after receiving a copy of a coffee table book from a friend about treasures at the University of Melbourne in Australia.  The university was not able to move forward with the book at that time.
“In the summer of 2007 the LSU commission on the history of LSU spoke to then Chancellor O’Keefe about celebrating the 150th anniversary of the university and what would we do for that celebration along with what legacy would we leave. So we put together a small committee that was a sub committee of the commission and that group came up with the recommendation of doing this book,” said Lindsay.
The idea that there are a number of things across the campus that are linked to the reason why LSU is a research facility first sparked Lindsay’s interest in the book. “The artifacts in here are things that donors, collectors, faculty have all brought to the campus for a variety of reasons,” said Lindsay.
Van Cox, professor and interim director of the School of Landscape and Architecture wrote three different articles for the book. Cox wrote about the history of the quad, the Southern Live Oak trees around campus and Acadian hall. Cox was asked to write the article about the quad because his firm redesigned the quadrangle in the late 1970s.
One of the Oak trees highlighted in the article by Cox is the bicentennial oak in front of the Journalism building, which is said to be 200 years old or more. “The bicentennial oak is one of the older oaks on campus and there is a survey that was done by some of the original campus planners that shows the oak there back in the 1920s,” said Cox.
“I find them all amazing, each has their own story and that’s what’s really special about that book because its not just a coffee table book of pictures, it is a story about every one of those objects that has a scene of meaning for the campus,” said Lindsay.
The book looks at many different historical artifacts around campus and each artifact is paired with an article that tells the history of that artifact as well as dispels any myths about the history of that artifact.
The story about the civil war era bronze cannons located outside of the LSU Department of Military Science is an example of an artifact that has myths that the book expels. The cannons have plaques on them saying that they were given to David Boyd by General William T. Sherman and that they fired on Fort Sumter, but in doing research for the book, the authors discovered that the cannons were not made until after the Civil War started so they could not have fired on Fort Sumter.
“I think there will be surprises in here for everybody, because we found things that even I did not know about.  The committee put out a call for nominations across the campus so faculty, staff and students nominated all the items that are in the book and the committee reviewed those and selected these,” said Lindsay. 
“I was quite pleased to see what Laura Lindsay and some of the other committee members did to make this a really fine publication, so I am real proud of it, glad to have it on my desk,” said Cox.
Lindsay will be at the Union Bookstore on Nov. 13 to sign copies of Treasures of LSU.
Treasures of LSU can be purchased from the LSU Press and from various Barnes & Noble Booksellers around Baton Rouge. 
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Helpful links:
http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/bookPages/9780807136775.html
http://www.2theadvocate.com/entertainment/103736544.html