For book lovers, file this news under “Feel Good Story”:

A library book – apparently checked out about 185 years ago – recently found its way back to the circulation desk at Centre College in Kentucky.

The book, second in the volume from a collection titled “Ancient Civilizations” by Charles Rollin, was found by intern Caroline Washnock last week as she took inventory of books in exhibit rooms at the Jacobs Hall Museum at the Kentucky School for the Deaf, less than a half-mile away from Centre College, the book’s rightful home.

The missing tome was apparently “hiding in plain sight” amidst a group of old, rare books inside a desk, said JoAnn Hamm, assistant director of Jacobs Hall Museum, in an interview with The College Fix.

Washnock came across the discovery when she noticed the phrase “December, 1828” and “Centre College Library” written inside one of the books she tried to catalogued.

“You might say it is surprising that it had not been found before now,” Hamm said.

Stan Campbell, director of library services at Centre College, said the book was part of the college’s collection before it built its first library, Sayre Library. That was constructed in 1862, but prior to that collections were scattered around campus. This book was housed in one of those small collections, Campbell said.

The book was returned to Centre College and is being archived and preserved.

Finding the book highlights a unique connection between Centre College, where the book belongs, and the Kentucky School for the Deaf, where the book was found, a connection that had been long forgotten about until the recent discovery, some say.

In 1823, the Kentucky legislature asked Centre College to operate the Kentucky Asylum for the Tuition of the Deaf and Dumb. John Adamson Jacobs was the third superintendent of that school, from 1835 to 1869, and he “built the school to prominence,” Hamm said.

Three months after his death in 1869, the state severed ties between the school and Centre College, marking the official end of their connection.

The overdue library book was found among some rare books believed to have been Superintendent Jacobs’ personal collection. It was found in one of his old desks.