ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


J u ly /A u g u s t 1 9 9 7 / 4 9 5

G rants 
and 

A cquisition s

On flight, space, and all 
kinds of aircraft
By Dana M. Caudle

Developing the aviation collections 
at A u b u r n  University

Ed  note: In lieu of our usual Grants and Ac­quisitions column, C&RL News this month 
offers the story of acquiring a collection—

aviation collection at Auburn University.

A unique body of materials
In 1985 Auburn University (AU) received the 
opportunity to acquire a unique body of m ate­
rials on aviation history. Using these materials 
as a base, the AU Libraries w ere able to build 
one of the foremost collections in aviation his­
tory in the country. Prior to 1985 this area of 
the collection received no special interest. The 
AU Libraries only had 4,017 books in aviation, 
3,932 o f them in English. Then in August 1985 
professor David Lewis received a call from an 
old friend of his, William A. Leary, history pro­
fessor and author at the University of Georgia. 
Leary had been contacted by Ben Hamilton of 
Hampton Books in Newberry, South Carolina. 
It seems Hamilton, a former book dealer in New 
York, had a collection of aviation materials he 
w ished to sell. Since Leary had been unable to 
persuade the University of Georgia to buy the 
collection, he passed along the information to 
his friend David Lewis and mailed him a dated 
catalog of pail of the H am pton collection.

Books in a barn
Lewis took this catalog to William Highfill, dean 
of the AU Libraries. Highfill was very interested 
and appointed Lewis, Wesley Newton, also of 
the History Department, Bobby Holloway (as­
sistant dean for technical services), and Boyd 
Childress (social sciences reference librarian) 
to look into the offer. These four m en drove to

th

Newberry to see the collection. A small farm 
w as m arked w ith a sign that said “B ooks.” 
Hamilton turned out to be an eccentric, elderly 
gentlem an w hose old plantation house was 
packed with collections. He had acquired the 
aviation collection from various places and 
persons, including a former officer in the Ger­
em an Luftwaffe. The rare items w ere kept in the 
house, but the majority w ere in the barn, a 
long structure with a dirt floor dow n the middle 
and floored stalls or bays on each side. The 
bays were crammed floor to ceiling with books. 
As the four men w ere admiring the collection, 
Lewis picked up one book that had the skin 
and skeleton o f a snake on it. Needless to say, 
he was quite startled.

The men drove back to Auburn very ex­
cited about the quality o f the collection. Lewis 
and Newton in particular were very enthusias­
tic about purchasing it. Highfill sought special 
funding from the university administration to 
pay for it, so he w ent to President Martin, the 
head o f AU, w ho told him to go ahead and 
purchase the collection with library funds. “You 
have the money, buy it.” Holloway made all 
the negotiations. Originally, Hamilton wanted 
$100,000 but Holloway had almost talked him 
dow n to $50,000 w hen Hamilton’s wife inter­
jected. She insisted that h er husband not ac­
cept less than $75,000. Holloway agreed to pay 
the $75,000 in three installments over the next 
three years. So Childress and David Smith (head 
of the Cataloging Department) transported the 
collection from South Carolina to Auburn in 
October 1985.

Beginning the process
Acquisitions ordered and paid for the collec­
tion in 1985-87 using year-end gift money. The 
collection consisted of 40-50 veiy large boxes 
of books and another 20-30 boxes of serials.

D a n a  M. C a u d le  is sc ie n c e  a n d  tech n o lo g y ca ta lo g er a t A u b u r n  University; 
-m ail: d c a u d le @ lib .a u b u m .e d ue

mailto:dcaudle@lib.aubum.edu


Lewis picked up a book that had the skin and skeleton 
of a snake on it. Needless to say, he was quite startled.

The Hampton Collection brought an additional 
3,703 titles to the libraries. It also had a signifi­
cant number of serials and included more than 
8,502 volumes overall. Aside from being dusty, 
the materials were in fairly good shape, con­
sidering how they had been housed. The boxes 
were brought in to the library and placed in 
the old Treasury Room for storage until they 
could be processed. Library staff separated the 
collection into serials, English-language m ono­
graphs, and foreign-language monographs, all 
to be processed. The majority of the English 
records w ere loaded by 1988. The foreign- 
language materials were handled after that. The 
materials were provided with black flags to dis­
tinguish them from the rest of the incoming 
materials. Gene Geiger (head of the Special Col­
lections Department) then examined the col­
lection to see which volumes would be housed 
in Special Collections. The more fragile items 
in Special Collections are held in a climate con­
trolled room with other fragile materials. The 
books in the main collection are intermixed 
with the regular books 
on the shelf. In the end, 
1,294 titles were sent to 
Special Collections, 165 
were sent to the Trea­
sury C ollection, an d  
2,244 titles, including 
1,857 monographs and 
387 serials, went to the 
general collection.

Copies that d u p li­
cated material in Spe­
cial Collections w ere 
kept; copies that dupli­
cated main collection 
material w ere sent to 
Childress for ev alu a­
tion. T hose materials 
that were not kept re­
main in the Acquisitions 
D ep artm en t for final 
d is p o s a l. O n ly  8 -9  
shelves, a very small 
p e r c e n ta g e  o f th e  
whole, remain. Acqui­
sitions has a list of du­
plicates to offer other A pre-WWl British military glider.

libraries. It took a total of 8-9 years for every
thing to filter through the Acquisitions Depart
ment. This collection had a lower priority tha
the processing of new  materials.

After the records were loaded into NOTI
by the Acquisitions Department, the books were
sent to cataloging. Each book was searched i
OCLC. Library of Congress copy was found fo
120 titles, old Library of Congress copy inpu
by other libraries for another 1,767 titles, OCL
member library copy for 1,058 titles, leavin
758 titles or 20% needing original cataloging.
The bulk of the English-language materials wa
cataloged prior to 1992. The foreign-languag
titles and the English titles requiring original
cataloging w ere catalo g ed  from  late 199
through early 1996.

The collection itself
The Hampton Collection’s true strength lies i
the fact that it is chronologically and geographi
cally broad. Lewis describes the collection a
“very catholic.” There is an impressive numbe

o f c o u n trie s  r e p r e
sented, including Lati
America, along with
many early works fro
the 15th to the 20t
century. O ne stron
area is the history o
aviation, including th
technical side of fligh
and some works on th
history of space. Othe
strong areas includ
foreign-language pub
lic a tio n s , a v ia tio n
m edicine, aero sp ac
engineering, and techni
cal works on aircraf
maintenance. The collec
tion also covers lighter
than-air craft, civil an
commercial aviation, an
military aviation, in
cluding World War 
a n d  th e  p e rio d  b e
tween the World Wars
There is an amazin
v a r ie ty  o f n a tio n a

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4 9 6 /  C&RL News



J u ly /A u g u s t 1 9 9 7 / 4 9 7

h isto ries, p a rtic u la rly  in G erm an . 
Lewis considers it to be a very strong 
collection, p ro viding a real co re of 
research m aterials in th e history of 
aeronautics.

Most of the materials are early 20th 
century w ith 58% o f th e collection 
(2,152 titles) being in English. As for 
the foreign-language items, the French 
materials (490 titles) cover such topics 
as the innovation of engines, particu­
larly in World War I. The German ma­
terials (843 titles) deal with airships,
World War II technology, and rockets.
The Italian materials (145 titles) em ­
phasize design, the Russian (21 titles) 
cover the space race, and the British Valerie Audee, a French pilot in the Indo-China War.
emphasize aviation history. O ther lan­
guages include 92 Spanish titles, 21 Portuguese 
titles, and a smattering o f materials in Swedish, 
Dutch, Danish, Latin, Czech, Polish, Norwegian, 
and Japanese.

Expanding the collection
To b u ild  o n  o u r existing stro n g  holdings, 
Childress continues to develop the collection. 
Q. M. D abney and Co. regularly publishes a 
catalog o f out-of-print aviation materials and 
Childress selects items to be purchased from 
these catalogs to com plim ent the H am pton 
Collection. Since the purchase of the original 
collection, the library has ad d ed  an additional 
2,001 items in several languages, bringing the 
total num ber o f aerospace titles to 9,721 as of 
February 1996. Much o f the collection w ould 
command a high price on the out-of-print mar­
ket. The collection’s estimated w orth is about 
4-10 times the original $75,000 the libraries paid 
for it. The library has $4,000-$5,000 worth in 
25 titles alone.

Funds for collection development come from 
grants or gift m oneys from NAAL, the Network 
of Alabama Academic Libraries, a consortium 
of Alabama academic libraries w hich gives col­
lection developm ent grants to m em ber librar­
ies. T h e  lib ra ry  h a s  in v e s te d  a to ta l o f 
$7,000-$10,000 to improve the collection. In 
addition to Dabney, other b ook dealers Au­
burn has used are the Military History Book 
Shop and Fernandez Gattell, a dealer in Span- 
ish-language materials. Childress tries to pur­
chase anything we do n ’t have, provided it meets 
the parameters o f the collection. Though pa­
rameters are virtually nonexistent with no lim­
its for language or format, price is one o f the

factors. Childress w o n ’t purchase many ex p en ­
sive titles, but he will purchase anything under 
$200, w h en  funds are available.

Using the collection—on call to CNN
The collection has received quite a bit of use, 
and not just for research purposes. During the 
Gulf War, CNN called with questions twice. 
Outside of the Smithsonian, the H am pton is 
one o f the strongest aviation history collections 
in the country, along with UCLA, the Univer­
sity o f Texas at Dallas, and Virginia Polytech­
nic Institute. Between the H am pton collection 
and the out-of-print materials acquired, the col­
lection is fairly com prehensive. There are four 
aerospace history professors at Auburn w ho 
have u se d  the collection to publish several 
books. William H. Trimble and David Lewis 
collaborated on The A irw ay to Everywhere: A 
History o f  A ll A m erican Aviation, 1937-1953- 
Trimble has written tw o other books using the 
collection. Lewis and Newton also collaborated 
on a history o f Delta airlines. Lewis is also writ­
ing a biography of Eddie Rickenbacher. Steve 
McFarlane and Newton have written one book 
on WWII bombing.

In addition to the books and serials on avia­
tion, the Archives D epartm ent has a num ber of 
pictures, brochures, program s from air club 
meetings, clippings, technical manuals and dia­
grams, and other ephem eral material from the 
H ampton Collection. The bulk of the archival 
material is in French and German. O ther re­
la te d  item s in c lu d e  th e  p a p e r s  o f E d d ie 
Rickenbacher, WWII pilot Isham J. Dorsey, and 
John Milton Bancroft, an aeronaut (balloonist) 
in the Civil War. ■