Harvard College Library officials reported April 26 the discovery of a theft of 18th-century French materials from the Widener Library. After several empty book covers were discovered in the stacks April 19, staff conducted an inventory and discovered a total of 46 items were missing.
Director of Communications Beth Brainard told American Libraries that the items were primarily pamphlets, journals, and books from the French Revolution and Napoleonic eras, among them Le Déclin du jour, a set of resolutions of the National Assembly dating from July 1789, when the Bastille prison was attacked.
All of the items had been earmarked to be moved to the library’s depository as part of the ongoing $52-million Widener Stacks Renovation project begun in 1999. “Normal security measures at the Widener have been tightened,” Brainard said, adding that research libraries and booksellers specializing in French antiquities have been alerted to the theft.
Posted April 30, 2001.