The first known printed New Testament in Asia appeared in 1715 in the Tamil language done by Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg, a Lutheran missionary.
The earliest known printed version of the tune now associated with the words appeared in Robert Carr's Delightful Companion (1686), for recorder or flute.
An American edition of "A Little Pretty Pocket Book" from 1787, for example, includes the first known printed reference to baseball in America.
The first known printed reference to gumbo was made in reference to food eaten not by French immigrants, but by African maroons who had escaped slavery in Louisiana.
The earliest known printed pattern books, beginning with those published in 1527 by Matio Pagano in Venice and Pierre de Quinty in Cologne, were dedicated to and intended for royal and noble ladies.
Religious groups in particular have been at the forefront of exploiting new technology: the first known printed book was the Gutenberg Bible, while the first social revolution spurred by print was the Reformation.
The story of Red Riding Hood has its roots in ancient Asian myth, but the version that's come down to us was pretty much shaped by the first known printed rendering.
Among the several images on display are the two earliest known printed on the subject: anonymous German woodcuts, hand-colored like illuminated miniatures, which were produced in Augsburg in 1475.
The collection includes "Polygraphiae Libri Sex" (1518) by Johannes Trithemius, above, the first known printed book on cryptology, along with notes of interviews with modern cryptologists, memos, photocopies and pamphlets.
"We know printed books are very important to the humanities and social sciences, and we would never do anything to undercut students and faculty in those fields," she said.
