ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries


C&RL News ■ Jan uary 2003 / 4 7

G r a n t s  a n d  A c q u i s i t i o n s Ann-Christe GaIloway

Johns Hopkins University has received a
$ 2 3 0 ,0 0 0  grant from the Institute o f Museum 
and Library Services to digitize nearly a half- 
cen tu ry  o f record ed  P eabo d y  C onservatory 
classical music perform ances and m ake them  
available on the W eb. T he co llection contains 
rarely recorded solo and en sem ble repertoire 
ranging from  the R en aissan ce to the avant 
garde.

Willamette University has received a grant 
o f $500,000 from the Meyer Memorial Trust to 
help support a $2 m illion endow m ent goal set 
for the Mark O. H atfield P olitical Archives. 
T he H atfield Archives co n tain  m aterials that 
d ate b a c k  to 1950, w h en  Se n a to r Mark O. 
Hatfield (R-O regon) first ran for public office. 
T h e c o lle c tio n  inclu des p u blic and private 
papers, photos, memorabilia from all stages o f 
his political career, audiovisual tapes, and his 
b o o k  collection.

The University of Illinois at Urbana- 
Champaign has received  a $ 1.5 m illion gift to 
e sta b lish  its first faculty chair. R ob ert and 
Juanita Sim pson o f Mount Vernon, Ohio, have 
endow ed  a fund that will provide perm anent 
support for a chair in the Rare B o ok  and Special 
C o llection s Library. R obert Sim pson, a 1949 
University o f Illinois graduate, is founder and 
c h a ir m a n  o f  MFM B u ild in g  P r o d u c ts  
Corporation in Coshocton, Ohio.

A c q u i s i t i o n s

A rtist and film m aker Cam ille Billops
and th e a te r historian Ja m e s  V. H atch have 
donated to the Special Collections and Archives 
o f Emory University a significant portion o f a 
c o lle c tio n  o f A frican-A m erican cu ltural art 
assem bled over the past 35 years. With a grant 
from  th e  N ational E nd ow m en t for the 
Humanities, Hatch and Billops began to conduct 
oral histories with artists in all disciplines— art, 
cinema, dance, drama, literature, music— and on 
related educational and political topics .Billops 
began photographing the works o f black artists

in ex h ib itio n s and private co lle ctio n s. T o 
com p lem en t this p ro ject, that now  num bers 
nearly 10,000 slides, they assembled a library of 
books, periodicals, and clippings. Hatch began 
to collect published and unpublished plays, set 
designs, theater program s, and historical and 
biographical works, creating a comprehensive 
black theater collection.

A collection related to abolitionist John
Brow n has b e e n  acquired by Plattsburg State 
University o f New York. T h e Edwin Cotter Jr. 
Collection was amassed by the longtime manager 
o f the Jo h n  Brow n  State Historic Site outside 
L a k e Placid, N ew  York. From the beginning o f 
his 30-year career there, Cotter was interested 
and involv ed  in J o h n  B row n sch o larsh ip , 
m aintaining c o rre s p o n d e n ce  w ith oth er 
re sea rch ers and w riters o n  the su bject. He 
sou g h t out d e sce n d e n ts o f  B row n  w h en  
co n stru ctio n  o f  th e ski ju m p s for the 1980 
Winter Games threatened to engulf the Brown 
farm and Brow n’s grave. An extensive library of 
bo oks and other publications about Brown, as 
well as photographs, extensive research notes, 
and drafts o f Cotter’s published and unpublished 
w orks are included in the collection.

Thousands of rare books and journals 
from the Massachusetts Horticultural Society 
have b e e n  acq u ired  by the C h icago B o ta n ic 
G ard en, inclu ding first ed itio n s o f D arw in’s 
b o ta n ica l w orks and a c o lle c tio n  o f botany, 
horticulture, and gardening journals published 
in the 18th century. T h e  c o lle c tio n  contain s 
historical and scarce volumes dating back as far 
as the 1400s, including a priceless collection o f 
2,2 1 9  rare b o o k s and 2 ,0 0 0  journal titles. T he 
o ld est b o o k  in the c o lle c tio n — p u b lish ed  in 
Treviso, Italy, in 1483— is D e H istoriaP lan tarum 
by Theophrastus, w ho was Aristotle’s favorite 
student and is often thought o f as the father o f 
botany. ■

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C&RL N e w s , 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; e - 
mail: agalloway@ala.org.

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