A Thumb, Pasta, and Bigfoot

College archivists relate the most unusual item in their collections. The Johns Hopkins University’s Institute of the History of Medicine keeps hair — framed, no less — from the cow Edward Jenner used to develop the smallpox vaccine in 1796. The University of Chicago has, among other odd items, a limited-edition book of poetry printed on a raw pasta noodle — “alas, becoming more brittle by the year,” writes Alice Schreyer, director of special collections. Marlboro College’s small Rudyard Kipling collection includes an unflattering biography of the publisher George H. Putnam, written by Kipling and printed on toilet paper. (The Chronicle, subscription required)