ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


141

Christopher W right 
Assistant Director 

A L A  Washington Office

Despite caustic observations from White
House staff about congressional schedules, the
House and Senate are in fact working at break­
neck speed this spring.

ALA and the administration have already

Inside Washington
told the two appropriations subcommittees their 
conflicting stories about the need for federal li­
brary money, and action on a bill appropriating 
FY 1976 funds for education programs is immi­
nent. Indeed, events are moving so quickly the 
congressional staff predict that money may get 
appropriated even before the fiscal year begins!

However, with library funding the topic of 
 the hour in the ALA Washington Office, any­
 thing said in print today is likely to be changed 

by a conversation tomorrow. Therefore we ask 
your indulgence for one month while we 
wrestle with our numbers. ■■

News From the Field
A C Q U I S I T I O N S

•  The papers of the late Whitney M. Young, 
Jr., the civil rights leader, have been presented 
to Columbia University, it was announced re­
cently. In recognition of this gift from his 
widow and the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Memori­
al Foundation, Columbia has renamed the li­
brary of its School of Social Work in Mr. 
Young’s honor. The receipt of the papers makes 
Columbia the center for research on Mr. Young 
and his work in the civil rights movement.

The Young papers, 100,000 items covering 
the period from 1958 to his death in 1971, fo­
cus primarily on his activities in the Urban 
League. The papers’ documentation of Mr. 
Young’s tenure as executive director of the Ur­
ban League from 1961 to 1971 is particularly 
significant for Columbia because of the historic 
tie between the University and the Urban 
League. The concept for the establishment of 
the Urban League in 1911 came from faculty 
members and students of the New York School 
of Philanthropy, predecessor of Columbia’s 
School of Social Work.

The papers also cover Mr. Young’s involve­
ment in a multitude of causes and events, in­
cluding poverty, planned parenthood, law en­
forcement, black business meetings, a White 
House conference, and congressional hearings.

“In adding the Whitney M. Young, Jr. papers 
to its manuscript collections, Columbia helps 
perpetuate the achievements and aspirations of 
a great American,” said Dr. William J. McGill, 
president of Columbia. “We welcome the pa­
pers because of their singular value as a re­
source for scholars and students concerned with 
the substance and process of social change in 
twentieth-century America.”

•  The Alfred C. Berol Lewis Carroll Collec­
tion has been donated to the Elmer Holmes 
Bobst Library at New York University by 
Mrs. Alfred C. Berol and her son, Kenneth R. 
Berol.

Assembled over several decades by the late 
Alfred C. Berol, this collection of the books, 
letters, manuscripts, and photographs of Lewis 
Carroll (C. L. Dodgson) is undoubtedly one 
of the finest of its kind. All of Carroll’s exten­
sive and varied production is present, usually 
with presentation inscriptions from the author. 
The collection contains an example of the fa­
mous 1865 “suppressed” edition of Alice in 
Wonderland in proof copy. There are no less 
than eight presentation copies of The Hunting 
of the Snark. A special section is devoted to 
translations of Alice into foreign languages, 
some 40 volumes ranging from Russian through 
Swahili to Esperanto. The many manuscripts 
include an early volume called Useful and In ­
structive Poetry with colored illustrations. Car- 
roll’s letters, which approach 500 in number, 
include several long and important series, 
among them 28 to Mary Dodgson and 48 to 
Gertrude Chataway. There are also many sig­
nificant letters to Carroll. Of particular interest 
are the 75 photographs taken by Carroll, who 
is now recognized as one of the great early mas­
ters of the art.

The acquisition of this collection makes the 
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library a major center for 
Lewis Carroll studies, especially as the collec­
tion also includes many documents he contrib­
uted to the field of mathematics-—Dodgson’s 
basic profession.

•  The late comic actor Billy De Wolfe’s per­
sonal collection of stage, screen, and television