ACRL College & Research Libraries News

College & Research Libraries News

Acquisitions

Alice Kahler Marshall's private archiveson women’s history, valued at nearly $300,000, have been acquired by The Pennsylvania State University. Thought to be the most extensive private compilation on the subject in the nation, the collection contains more than 6,000 books and hundreds of pamphlets, broadsides, buttons, postcards, posters, and games. Also included in the acquisition are more than 400 periodicals, including such rare newspapers as Una (1853), the Free Inquirer (1832), and all 941 issues of the 17th century periodical, the Observator (1681-1684). Marshall worked on the Washington Post before jointing the intelligence branch of the 2nd Air Force in WWII. More recently, she worked as a senior research analyst for the state House of Representatives and a speech writer during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s for several political figures.

V. S. Naipaul's manuscripts, correspondence, and family memorabilia have been acquired by The University of Tulsa. Equally lauded for his fiction and his journalism, Naipaul is the author of 10 novels, 10 books of nonfiction, and a collection of short stories. Born in Trinidad to descendants of Indian immigrants, Naipaul was educated at Oxford University. Naipaul first won international acclaim in 1961 after the publication of his novel A House for Mr. Biswas. His most recent work, India: A Million Mutinies Now, was published in 1990.

The papers of famed English biographerElizabeth Pakenham have been acquired by the Twentieth Century Archives at Boston University. Known for her noteworthy biographies of Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth I, and Sir Winston Churchill, Pakenham was educated at Oxford earning her degree in classical history and philosophy. Pakenham’s major works include Victoria, M(1964), Wellington: The Years of the Sword (1969), The Royal House of Windsor (1974),- Churchill (1974), and Byron’s Greece (1975). The collection includes Pakenham’s manuscripts, research notes, diaries, and datebooks.

Robert Penn Warren's private workinglibrary and poetry collection have been acquired by Western Kentucky University’s Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies. The collection contains 2,250 volumes, photographs, a Pulitzer medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the laurel wreath Warren received when he became America’s first Poet Laureate, and other memorabilia. Warren (1905-1989), best known for his Pulitzer-prizing winning novel, All The King’s Men, left a body of work that included 16 volumes of poetry, 10 novels, a play, a volume of short stories, a collection of critical essays, a biography, and two studies of race relations in America.

Seven hundred and forty-five watercolorpaintings, pencil drawings, and prints by 19th- century artist John Rubens Smith have been acquired by The Library of Congress. In his time an influential drawing master, Smith created some of the finest surviving sketches of America during the Federal period, including views of Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and other Eastern seaboard cities.

Traditional Crafts of Japan,a set ofbooks and videos on traditional Japanese arts and crafts has been acquired by the Architec- ture/Fine Arts Library at the University of Manitoba libraries. A gift from the Soroptomist International, this set contains information on everything from ceramics to writing instruments, and will be of particular interest to scholars in the fields of art, religion, history, textiles, and Asian Studies. This gift is part of a worldwide distribution sponsored by Fuji Bank Ltd.

Charles James Apperley's unpublishedletters and personal papers have been acquired by the University of Virginia Library’s Marion duPont Scott collection of sporting books. Considered by some the first great sports journalist, Apperley wrote vivid, detailed accounts of fox hunting and horse racing in 1820s and 30s under the nom de plume Nimrod. Eagerly read throughout England and the United States, Apperley (1778-1843) was known for his lively, anecdote-filled accounts, written mainly for The Sporting Magazine, one of the most popular sports journals of its day. Brilliant, vain, and pompous, Apperley peppered his personal letters with juicy gossip, details about his hunting tours, complaints about other writers’ work and the casually dropped names of prominent members of royalty, nobility, and the sporting world. The 11-volume archive, containing some 1,200 of Apperley’s letters, papers, and manuscripts, was purchased from a New York rare book and manuscript dealer with funds from the Scott endowment.

The Sol Eisen Collection of Canadianahas been acquired by the University of Waterloo Library. The collection contains 170 rare volumes, including one of the few books published in the Montagnais dialect, Nehiro-Iriniui Aiamihe Massinahigan, printed by William Brown in 1767. Also included in the collection are several imprints of great rarity not listed in Patricia Fleming’s Upper Canadian Imprints, 1801-1841; A Bibliography. Included in this category are a children’s book, First Book for Children, printed in 1826; an 1839 edition of

Wilson's Border Tales;and two almanacs which were previously unknown: The Upper Canada Almanac and Directory of 1831 and The Toronto Farmer’s and Mechanic’s Almanac (1838). The collection also contains the only known extent copies of Swift’s York Country Almanac and the Upper Canada Almanac for 1837.

Over 200 letters and documents writtenby and to Sam Houston (1793-1863) have been acquired by Rice University. Included in the acquisition are correspondence from would-be Texas colonizers, Henri Castro and Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, and documents and letters pertaining to Indian affairs, including correspondence with Houston’s Cherokee foster father John Jolly and with Bowles, chief of Texas’s Cherokee Nation. Another portion of the collection focuses on Sam Houston’s term as President of the independent Republic of Texas and his administrations’ relations with the U.S. government, including letters and documents to and from Daniel Webster, Zachary Taylor, John C. Calhoun, and James Buchanan. ■