ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


4 2 8  /  C&RL News

Gra n ts 
a n d  

Acquisitions
T a r a  W e ik u m

C a lifo rn ia  S ta te  U n iv e r
sity-San Marcos has received 
a $1 million donation to es­
tablish a university library. 
The current library is tem ­
porarily housed in classroom 
space and it has already b e­
c o m e  n e c e s s a r y  to  h a v e  
com pact shelving off-cam
pus to accom m odate current 
h o ld in g s . T h e  m o n e y , 
pledged over tw o years, was 
given by W. Keith and Jean 
Kellogg, philanthropists and 
supporters o f the university 
since its beginning seven years ago.

The H ill M o n a stic  M a n u s c rip t L ib ra ry  a t  
Saint Jo h n ’s University has received a $400,000 
g ran t from  th e A ndrew  W. 
Mellon Foundation to develop 
g u id elin es a n d  system s for 
cataloging medieval and re­
naissance manuscripts in elec­
tronic form. T he three-year 
project called Electronic Ac­
cess to Medieval Manuscripts 
will develop standards for en ­
coding core-level and detailed 
m a n u sc rip t d e sc rip tio n s in 
MARC and SGML.

The U n iv e rs ity  o f M a r y
land at College Park (UMCP) 
L ib raries h a v e  r e c e iv e d  a 
$ 1 0 ,0 0 0  g r a n t  fro m  th e  
S u m m e rle e  F o u n d a tio n  o f 
Dallas for preserving and in­
creasing access to the papers 
of w ell-know n author Kath­
erine Anne Porter. The funds 
will enable the libraries to re­
process the papers so that a 
portion can be microfilmed. 
During the 1960s Porter do
n ated her entire personal li­
brary and m uch of her vast 
collection o f papers to UMCP, 
an d  now  the P orter Papers 
represent o n e o f the largest 
literary archives of a single au­ Katherine Anne P orter’s wooden 

coffin is now part o f the collec­
tions at the Univ. o f Maryland.

th o r at any U.S. institution. 
Also part of the collection is

P o r t e r ’s w o o d e n  c o ffin , 
w hich she kept in her apart­
m e n t a n d  d e l i g h t e d  in 
shocking friends with it. Por­
ter, w ho died in 1980, was 
crem ated and the coffin not 
used.

The R esearch L ib raries
G r o u p  h a s  b e e n  g iv e n  
$200,000 to help fund its col­
laborative digitization p ro ­
ject, “Studies in Scarlet.” The 
tw o-year project will create 
a virtual library collection 

around the central them e o f marriage and sexu­
ality in the U.S. and the United Kingdom from 
1815– 1914. A w arded by the National Center 
for Automated Information Research, the project 

will test th e theory th at an 
electronic collection for schol­
arly research can be created 
cooperatively, m ade w idely 
available, and b e m aintained 
for future use.

N e w  Y o r k  U n iv e r s ity ’ s 
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library 
has b een  given $500,000 by 
Barbara Goldsmith to estab­
lish th e B arbara G oldsm ith 
Curatorship in Preservation. 
The m oney will enable the li­
brary to expand its conserva­
tion and preservation efforts 
o f its m any em brittled v ol­
um es.

O h io  U n iv e rs ity  Libraries 
has received $50,000 for the 
Archives and Special Collec­
tio n s  D e p a r t m e n t . T h e  
money, given by the estate of 
Constance Sands, w ho m ade 
the beq u est in honor o f her 
aunt, Candus Martzollf, a long
time library em ployee in the 
early 20th century, will serve 
as a general endow m ent fund 
for the departm ent.

T h e  U n iv e r s it y  o f  V e r
m ont has b een  given $157,413



Ju n e 1 997 /  429

by the National Endowment for the Humani­
ties to coordinate a statewide new spaper project 
which will locate, catalog, and preserve news­
papers published in the state from the 18th 
century to the present day. The project was 
begun in 1982 to ensure that America’s histori­
cal new spapers are preserved as resources. 
Vermont is the 50th state to be funded, and 
when the project is complete, holding records 
for all the new spapers published in the U.S. 
will be recorded in OCLC.

Queens Library’ s Langston Hughes Com
munity Library and Cultural Center in Jamaica, 
New York, has received two grants totaling 
$112,000 from the State Departm ent of Educa­
tion/The University of the State of New York. 
The first grant for $100,000 will be issued to 
the Black Heritage Reference Center to docu­
ment the history of African descent in America. 
The second grant will help fund a cultural arts 
project w hich will allow musical artists and 
poets to present lectures and demonstrations 
in local elem entary and middle schools and 
public libraries.

Acquisitions
Correspondence b y  Tennessee W illia m s , 
the political archives of Group Research, Inc., 
and the papers of Czech writer Vera Blackwell 
have been acquired by Columbia University’s 
Rare Book and Manuscript Library. Letters, post­
cards, and telegrams written by Williams to his 
family w ere part of a purchase at Sotheby’s 
which also included a photograph of the play­
wright and a DMV document. Group Research, 
Inc.’s political archives include press releases, 
news stories, and other print docum ents de­
tailing the right-wing political m ovem ent’s rise 
to pow er in the U.S. from the 1960s to the 
present. The Vera Blackwell acquisition includes 
correspondence, papers, scripts, and transla­
tions of the Czechoslovakian writer/director/ 
actor and is now  part of the Bakhmeteff Ar­
chive of Russian and East European History and 
Culture.

The p a p e rs  o f A m e ric a n  p o e t J am es
Merrill have been given to W ashington Uni­
versity (WU) in St. Louis. Comprising more than 
80 linear feet, the collection includes m anu­

scripts, notebooks, artwork, correspondence, 
and photographs. The author of 14 books of 
poetry, Merrill was the recipient of two Na­
tional Book Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, a National 
Book Critics Circle Award, and served as poet 
laureate for the state of Connecticut. Merrill’s 
work has been one of the cornerstone’s of WU’s 
Modern Literature Collection.

H istorical m a te ria ls  a n d  m e m o ra b ilia
associated with the Italian patriot and revolu­
tionist Giuseppe Garibaldi have been given to 
the University of South Carolina. The collec­
tion contains Garibaldi’s personal library, let­
ters, illustrative materials, 19th-century news­
papers, medals, and other diverse items relating 
to Garibaldi and the Risorgimento, the 1860 
reunification of Italy. Garibaldi led an overthrow 
of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies which led 
the way to Italian unification. D onated by An­
thony C am panella, a leading auth o rity  on 
Garibaldi, the collection is expected to be val­
ued at $1 million after appraisals.

Pap ers o f p ro m in e n t m e m b e rs  o f th e  
American Indian M ovement (AIM) are now  
op en  at the University of New Mexico. The 
papers relate to the trial of three m en accused 
in 1975 of killing two FBI agents. Also included 
in the material are the federal investigations of 
AIM and American Indian issues such as land 
rights, religious freedom, and discrimination.

A  collection o f e a rly  2 0 th -c e n tu ry  A m e ri­
can and European literature was given to the 
Chester Fritz library at the University of North 
Dakota (UND). The collection, given by Car­
ole Anderson, a 1946 graduate, includes some 
privately bound books and some first editions, 
and is valued at more than $14,000.

The C h a rlo tte  a n d  Lloyd W in e la n d  Col
lection of Native American and Western Ex­
ploration Literature has been acquired by the 
Smithsonian Institution Libraries. The collection, 
consisting of 88 volumes of rare books, includes 
the first published version of Lewis and Clark’s 
journals, written in their ow n words. The works 
are important to the study of the American West 
and Indians of North America. ■

Ed. note: Send your news to: Grants & Ac­
quisitions, C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chi­
cago, IL 60611; e-mail: medavis@ala.org.

mailto:medavis@ala.org