1991 Opus 30, Page 5 - CARLI Digital Collections Featured Image

In Chinese numerology certain numbers are believed to be auspicious; the number eight, for example, is associated with prosperity. Triskaidekaphobia is fear of the number 13. 42 is the Answer to The Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, at least according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Viewers of the television series Lost can still recall its enigmatic sequence of six numbers--4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42--years after the show's end. But beyond its use in counting, measuring, and labeling, can a number really have deeper meaning?

This photograph by Jacqueline Balian was published on page 5 in volume 30 of Opus, Saint Xavier University's art and literary magazine. (The digital collection contains all 53 volumes published between 1959 and 2013.) The image is a study in contrasting light and shadow, but the caption title "Lucky Numbers" calls attention to that central detail.

A search for "6527" links the number to various street addresses, legal code sections and legislative bills, and product identifiers. It's the number for Blissful Blue paint by Sherwin Williams, a Lego tipper truck, the Sam's Club location in Baton Rouge, the ISO standard for nuclear power plant reliability data exchange. If read as the date 6/5/27--well, June 5, 1927 was a Sunday on which events happened and people died or were born. The kicker: 6527 was also the number of the FBI's confidential file room, a.k.a. Name Searching Unit, established by J. Edgar Hoover. Eerie!

Unanswered questions: Where was this shot snapped? What is it actually a picture of? What, if anything, did this number signify to the photographer? I'd wager that it was the kind of "lucky" number chanced upon and used to play the lottery, but I guess we'll never know. Ah, life's little mysteries.

Written by Ellen K. Corrigan, Associate Professor, Cataloging Services, Booth Library, Eastern Illinois University

For more information about this and other CARLI Digital Collections, visit http://collections.carli.illinois.edu