ACRL News Issue (B) of College & Research Libraries 346 / C&RL News ★ ★ ★ News from the field Acquisitions • Auburn University, Alabama, has acquired a collection of approximately 500 volumes having to do with railroads, principally in the United States. Many of the volumes are histories of specific rail­ roads while others deal w ith railroads in various historical periods including the Civil W ar. The col­ lection also includes numerous popular and highly illu stra te d volum es an d au to b io g rap h ica l ac­ counts, as well as a num ber of manuals and trea­ tises on engine m aintenance and construction. Among the rarer volumes are Locomotive and Sta­ tionary Engines (1860), and the Locomotive Ency­ clopedia of American Practice (1922). Also fea­ tured are works on American railroads in Central America and the development of British railroads in Africa. • Georgetown University, Washington, D .C ., has received the papers of American playwright Philip Barry (1896-1949), noted for his master­ piece of high comedy, “The Philadelphia Story,” and other works. The papers are the gift of Barry’s widow, artist Ellen Barry. Included are the m anu­ scripts of many of his dramas as well as correspon­ dence with literary friends including Gerard Mur­ phy, John O’H ara and Stephen Vincent Benet. The inscribed galley proofs of Benet’s classic one-act play, “The Devil and Daniel W ebster,” dedicated to the Barrys, is included, along w ith the original contract for “The Philadelphia Story,” signed by Barry and Katherine Hepburn. • The Library of Congress, Washington, D .C ., has received a large gift of musical and literary manuscripts by Italian–American composer Mario C astelnuovo—Tedesco (1895-1968) from H ans M o ld en h au e r, fo u n d e r a n d d ire c to r of th e Moldenhauer Archives. The gift marks the estab­ lishm ent of a new collection, designated th e Moldenhauer Archives at the Library of Congress. Moldenhauer Archives have already been estab­ lished at several other institutions in the United States and Europe. The Castelnuovo–Tedesco m a­ terial includes more than 200 manuscripts and a great num ber of facsimile blueprints w ith auto­ graph inscriptions, as well as recordings and pic­ tures. The Library holds a large group of similar materials given earlier by the composer and, later, his widow. A small group of autograph m anu­ scrip ts, le tte rs , an d d o cu m en ts by com poser Charles M artin Loeffler and others is also included in the gift. The Library has also acquired a collection of the­ ater materials from John Ford Sollers Sr., grandson of John Thompson Ford, the owner and operator of Ford’s Theatre when President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated there on the night of April 14, 1865. The gift includes a large collection of play­ bills, theater-lobby broadsides, scripts, scrap ­ books, photographs, and letters—some relating to Lincoln’s assassination, and others from prom inent figures in the 19th-century theater world including actor Edw in Booth, the brother of John Wilkes Booth, the suspected assassin. Among correspon­ dence dealing w ith the Lincoln assassination are letters from friends and business associates of Ford, who was jailed for more than 30 days as a possible “co-conspirator” in the crime before being fully ex­ onerated. The theater was seized by the govern­ ment, which belatedly paid Ford $100,000 for it. Turned into government offices, it was restored and reopened to the public in 1968. • M a rs h a ll U n iv e rs ity ’s S o c ie ty o f Y e a g e r Scholars, Huntington, West Virginia, has acquired a large collection of papers and memorabilia from the Society’s honorary national chairm an, retired Air Force Gen. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager and his wife, Glennis. In addition to seven cubic feet of correspondence, the archive contains publications, technical papers, photos, files, books, and many items related to Yeager’s colorful career as a test pi­ lot. Most notable is the wind-tunnel model of the Bell X–l experimental aircraft which Yeager flew in 1947 when he became the first m an to break the sound barrier, as well as Yeager’s copy of the offi­ cial reports of the historic flight. Also included are numerous trophies and aw ards, m otion picture footage, videotapes, letters from various presi­ dents, and the pocket knife Yeager carried on all his flights. By agreement, the collection will not be available to the public until after the deaths of General and Mrs. Yeager. • T h e Sm ithsonian In stitu tion , W ash in gton , D .C ., has acquired Folkways Records from the es­ tate of its founder, Moses Asch, following three years of negotiations. Founded in 1947, Folkways became the best known commercial record pub­ lisher of folk and tribal music in the United States and publisher of a historically significant collection of spoken-word recordings. Over the years, Asch built up a catalog of more than 2,200 albums of tre­ mendous diversity, ranging from early classical to electronic music; documented recordings of more than 700 native peoples of the world; instrument June 1987 / 347 and language instruction recordings; readings from ancient and modern literature, in English and other languages; songs and games for children, in several languages; and a science series, including sounds of North American frogs and an introduc­ tion to human biology. The label has also featured a collection of historical and documentary readings of the words of historical figures as well as contem­ porary recordings of Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, John F. Kennedy, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., Jo- sephy McCarthy, Bertrand Russell, Simone de Beauvoir and Carl Sandburg, among many others. Not one of the recordings was ever allowed to go out of print, despite an infrequent demand for many. In addition to purchasing Folkways’ pub­ lished catalog, the Smithsonian has received the Folkways Archives as a gift from Michael and Frances Asch, Asch’s son and widow. The archives consist of an extensive collection of unreleased ma­ terial, including books, tapes, original glass record­ ing disks, correspondence and other materials of interest to scholars. The archives will become part of the Smithsonian’s Office of Folklife Programs. The purchase of the Folkways catalog was facili­ tated by the Birch Tree Group, a Princeton, New Jersey-based music publisher which has bought the existing Folkways inventory and signed an agree­ ment to manage the marketing and distribution of Folkways Records for the Smithsonian. Plans are underway for the production of a benefit album or multi-record set to cover the costs of the acquisi­ tion, featuring a variety of well-known folk, coun­ try and rock artists. • The University of California, Riverside, has acquired a collection of Latino/Chicano literary materials belonging to the university’s late chancel­ lor, Tomas Rivera. The collection, which also in­ cludes Rivera’s personal papers and correspon­ dence, as well as other items, is the gift of Rivera’s widow, Concepcion. N um bering some 75,000 items, it will form the basis of the Tomas Rivera Ar­ chives, to be housed in the general library, re­ named in Rivera’s memory in 1985. Rivera, the first minority chancellor of the University of Cali­ fornia, was one of the highest Latino administra­ tors in the state and a was appointed by President Jimmy Carter a member of the President’s Com­ mission for a National Agenda for the ’80’s. Plans for the archives include a documentary film on Rivera’s life, a traveling exhibit highlighting some of its holdings, and programs and conferences. • The University of Delaware, Newark, has re- ceived more than 2,200 titles from the library of the la te professor George M.A. H anfm ann, who taught at Harvard from 1935 until his retirement in 1982. Included are works on Greek, Etruscan and Roman art and archaeology; and Anatolian arts and archaeology from the prehistoric into the Byz­ antine periods, with a special collection on the ex­ cavations at Sardis, in Turkey, conducted under Hanfm am ís direction from 1958 to 1978. The col­ lection contains numerous rare archaeological re­ ports originally published in very small numbers and now virtually unobtainable. • The University of Illinois at Chicago has form ed th e R obert H u n ter M iddleton Design Printing Collection, named for the late Chicago type designer and design theorist. The collection consists of artifacts, posters, drawings, photo­ graphs, slides, keepsakes, personal papers, record books, plans, drawings, books, manuscripts and items for corporate identification. The materials will be housed in the university’s Special Collec­ tions department. Middleton, who died in August 1985, was a Scottish immigrant who studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and later joined the Lud­ low Typograph Company, where he designed and promoted 98 typefaces. He was a founder and sub­ sequent honorary member of the Society of Typo­ graphic Arts, and a founding member of The 27 Chicago Designers, now in its 51st year. Middleton helped to found the Institute of Design (later the Il­ linois Institute of Technology) in Chicago, which attracted such figures as Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Serge Chermayeff, R. Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Ludw ig Mies van der Rohe, György Kepes and W alter Paepcke. The Middleton Ar­ chive includes the 1927-1970 records of the Insti­ tute. Middleton also won praise for his avocation, the private Cherryburn Press, in particular for his flawless prints of the wood engravings of the 18th- century English engraver Thomas Bewick. Grants • The Library of Congress has embarked on a six-part project to catalog, restore, preserve, and publish its collection of about 200 maps of Wash­ ington, D.C. The goal of the four-year effort, fi­ nanced in large part by a grant of $348,250 from the National Geographic Society, is to make the Preservation agenda The Council on Library Resources’ Commis­ sion on Preservation and Access recently pub­ lished a brochure that describes its goals and ac­ tivities. The Commission’s m ajor goal is to coordinate and assist in meeting the necessary funding for a national brittle book preservation program. The American Library Association is cooperating with the Commission as part of its advisory group, the National Advisory Council on Preservation. A film on preservation, Slow Fires, will be ready for sale or rental this summer. For further information, contact the Commission on Pres­ ervation and Access, c/o Council on Library Resources, 1785 Massachusetts Ave., N .W ., Washington, DC 20036.