july06c.indd


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

T h e  U n i v e r s i t y  o f  N o r t h  C a r o l i n a  a t  
Chapel Hill (UNC) has received a $505,232 
federal grant from the Institute of Museum 
and Library Sciences. The award will allow 
UNC to post the recorded interviews of more 
than 500 southerners describing their per­
sonal experiences of history to the university 
library’s historical Web site. The recordings are 
among more than 3,700 collected by UNC’s 
Southern Oral History Program. The project 
will also enable futher development of new 
information technology pioneered by the 
university library. 

Acquisitions 

The Black Film Promotional Materials Col­
lection has been acquired by Washington 
University. The collection is made up of 2,700 
posters, programs, photographs, advertise­
ments, press kits, and other materials used to 
promote more than 400 films between 1915 
and 1980. Among the more rare items in the 
collection are materials related to fi lms made 
before 1950, including The Birth of a Nation 
(1915), Cabin in the Sky (1941), and Stormy 
Weather (1943). The collection offers exten­
sive materials from popular movies, such as 
No Way Out (1950), Carmen Jones (1954), The 
Defi ant Ones (1958), In the Heat of the Night 
(1967), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner 
(1968). Materials related to the classic Blaxpoi­
tation films of the 1970s are particularly rich. 
Most of the films were made in the United 
States, but there are some rare holdings from 
the United Kingdom, Denmark, France, Ger­
many, Poland, Romania, Latin America, and 
Australia. A detailed guide to the collection is 
available online at library.wustl.edu/units/spec 
/archives/guides/pdf/black­fi lm.pdf. 

Ed. note: Send your news to: Grants & Acquisitions, 
C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; 
e-mail: agalloway@ala.org. 

The papers of C.A.E. (Earle) Rinker (1883– 
1965), a stenographer and miner, who lived 
and worked in Goldfield, Nevada, from 1906 
to 1909 during its heyday as one of the richest 
gold mining areas in the world, have been ac­
quired by the Special Collections Division of 
the University of Nevada­Las Vegas. Although 
one of the state’s most celebrated ghost towns 
today, Goldfield was once the centerpiece 
of a thriving mining community in central 
Nevada. Founded in 1902, Goldfi eld boasted 
a population of some 30,000 at the height of 
its boom in 1906, along with an elegant hotel 
and an opera house (Las Vegas, by compari­
son, had a population of under 1,000 at this 
time). Rinker’s papers, composed of almost 
500 pieces of correspondence, personal dia­
ries, photographs, stenographers notepads, 
and published materials such as pocket maps, 
mining prospectuses, mining publications, 
and annual reports from mining companies, 
document some of the most signifi cant events 
and personalities in the history of early 20th­
century Nevada. They also serve to chronicle 
many aspects of Nevada’s mining industry 
during this important time period. 

The Burndy Librar y has been acquired 
by the Huntington Library, Art Collections, 
and Botanical Gardens. The gift is composed of 
some 67,000 rare books and reference volumes, 
as well as a collection of scientifi c instruments. 
The library, founded by Ukrainian­born and 
Connecticut­based inventor and industrialist 
Bern Dibner (1897–1988), is the largest library 
collection to come to the Huntington since 
Henry E. Huntington’s founding gift to the 
institution in 1919. The library consists of an 
extensive collection in the history of science 
and technology, with a strong focus on the 
physical sciences. The Burndy Library com­
prises important materials from antiquity to 
the 20th century, with a particular emphasis on 
18th­century physics, including collections by 
and about Isaac Newton, as well as major col­
lections in 18th­ and 19th­century mathematics, 

C&RL News July/August 2006  440 

mailto:agalloway@ala.org


the history of electricity, civil and structural en­
gineering, optics, and color theory, among oth­
ers. The collection includes such rare treasures 
as a 1544 edition of Archimedes’ Philosophi 
ac Geometrae, a first edition of Robert Boyle’s 
Experiments and notes about the mechanical 
origin or production of electricity (1675), and 
the scientific library of Louis Pasteur. Dibner 
designed and patented the first solderless elec­
trical connector—a new way to join cable and 
wire—and founded the Burndy Engineering 
Company in 1924. He established the Burndy 
Library in 1941 to house his growing collection 
of rare books and manuscripts. 

The Elmer Bernstein Collection has been 
donated to the University of Southern Califor­
nia’s Cinema­Television Library. Bernstein, who 
died in August 2004, taught at the USC Thornton 
School of Music for more than eight years. To 
honor Bernstein’s lifelong commitment to musi­
cal education and to celebrate his connection 
to USC, his family has donated his personal 
archives, which contain numerous treasures, 
ranging from original scores to momentos. It is 
valued at more than $5 million. Plans to digitize 
a significant portion of the collection will  make 
it easily accessible to students, aspiring musi­
cians, composers, and fans. 

(“Reviews” continued from page 437) 

“In the News” (links to news, Webcasts, and 
campaigns dealing with violence). 

The message that one is not responsible 
for any act of violence perpetuated against 
her or him is a strong component of this 
site. The straightforward presentation of 
information on all types of violence and 
on ways to find assistance makes this an 

excellent site for professionals and victims 
of abuse. 

This Web site is an excellent, easy­to­
navigate resource for information and help 
in dealing with personal violence. As an ad­
ditional bonus, much information is available 
in Spanish.—Karen Evans, Indiana State 
University, kevans4@isugw.indstate.edu 

July/August 2006  441 C&RL News 

mailto:kevans4@isugw.indstate.edu