GRANTS AND ACQUISITIONS
C&RL News, April 2009
Vol. 70, No. 4
by Ann-Christe Galloway
The Library of Congress has received a Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) to support a project that will catalog 125,000 sheet maps of Africa. The catalog records to be produced under the $240,240 grant will include geographic coordinates for each map that will permit geographic searching of the catalog records. The enhanced catalog data will make it possible to view the coverage area of individual sheet maps using geographical browsers such as Google Earth. The Library of Congress collected maps since 1800, forming the Geography and Map Division in 1897 to concentrate exclusively on the development of that collection. At present, the division holds some 5.5 million maps, 75,000 atlases, 500 globes and globe gores, 3000 raised relief images, and 20,000 digital files. Work on the CLIR-funded project will be completed by February 2012.
The collaborative project “Working for Freedom: Documenting Civil Rights Organizations,” has received $900,000 from CLIR. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the grant will support the inventorying, cataloging, and opening for research of civil rights-oriented collections at the Emory University Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (Atlanta); the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History (Atlanta); the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University (New Orleans); and the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center (Atlanta).
Louisiana State University has received a gift of $100,000 from Terence “Terry” Beven, and his wife, Liz. The Beven donation takes the form of an endowed gift, which will help LSU address the libraries’ needs for many years to come. The Bevens have a long history of service to LSU Libraries, and represent the libraries on the Forever LSU National Campaign Cabinet. They are also members of the Libraries’ Benefactor’s Society and Friends of the LSU Libraries. Forever LSU is a campaign to attain more than $750 million in support for the university by the end of the year 2010.
Acquisitions
Through an agreement signed with the Ulysses S. Grant Association, correspondence, photographs, books, memorabilia, and other documents related to the military career and presidency of Ulysses S. Grant now are being housed at Mississippi State University (MSU). In December 2008, MSU Libraries officials took delivery of nearly 90 filing cabinets of original and photocopied manuscripts. Formerly housed at Southern Illinois University, the material includes letters written to leading political and military figures of the day, as well as epaulets, headgear, diaries, and other war memorabilia. Over the next five years, the Ulysses S. Grant Association and MSU Libraries will be leading efforts to produce a supplementary volume, as well as a scholarly edition of Memoirs, Grant’s autobiography. The MSU libraries also will be working to develop a digitized version of the entire series and a cumulative index, which will precede a formal opening of the collection to visiting scholars.
MSU President Mark Keenum and First Lady
Rhonda Keenum view a portrait of Ulysses S. Grant
at Mitchell Memorial Library prior to a program
officially accepting the Grant Collection for MSU.
Photo credit: Jim Tomlinson, MSU Libraries.
Jim Hightower—national radio commentator, syndicated political columnist, public speaker, and New York Times best-selling author—has donated his archives to the Wittliff Collections at Texas State University-San Marcos. Branded “America’s #1 Populist,” Hightower believes the true political spectrum is not right-to-left but bottom-to-top, and he is dedicated to battling the powers-that-be on behalf of—in his words—the “powers-that-ought-to-be”: consumers, working families, farmers, environmentalists, small business owners, and “just plain folks.” The Hightower Papers document every aspect of Hightower’s long career; materials are expected to reach approximately 200 linear feet once everything is rehoused in archival boxes and the inventory process is complete. Also of note are approximately 600 photographs his staff is currently digitizing. Among these are shots of Hightower speaking, politicking, and attending various events, as well as pictures with such luminaries as Cesar Chavez, Willie Nelson, Robert Redford, Ann Richards, Molly Ivins, Granny D, Ted Kennedy, and others.
The literary archive of Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) has been acquired by the UCLA Library. The collection contains literary materials he created subsequent to a devastating 1961 fire that destroyed his Los Angeles home and much of his earlier archive; correspondence, photographs, and audio tapes; and typescripts and galley proofs retrieved from publishers after his death. Also included are the papers of his wife, Laura Huxley (1911–2007), author and lay therapist. The literary materials include manuscripts and working papers for 12 books; 35 essays, articles, and speeches; and 31 lectures. Among hundreds of letters are love letters between the writer and his wife, Laura. There are recordings of many of his lectures and of him reading from his novel Time Must Have a Stop (1944), and English and French poetry. The archive also contains a travel diary, four personal notebooks and personal effects, including his British passport, a magnifying glass, fountain pens, and a leather wallet.
The Boone and Crockett Club, the oldest national wildlife conservation organization in North America, has donated its historic files, letters, and photographs to the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library at the University of Montana. The club was founded in 1887 by Theodore Roosevelt and a handful of friends to address declines in wildlife populations on a national scale. It was the first hunter-conservationist organization of its kind. The Boone and Crockett Club has been involved in almost every major conservation effort in North America, including the expansion and protection of Yellowstone National Park, the passage of the Migratory Bird Act, and the establishment of the federal wildlife refuge system, including the National Bison Range in 1908. The club also maintains the hunting records of native North American big game as a vital conservation record in assessing the success of wildlife management programs across the continent. Throughout the organization’s history, club members have advocated on behalf of legislation in support of conserving big game and wildlife habitat. In 1992, the organization established an endowed chair in wildlife biology at the university to teach classes and conduct research at the Missoula campus and the club’s 6,000-acre Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Ranch.
Ed. note: Send your news to: Grants & Acquisitions, C&RL News, 50 E. Huron St., Chicago, IL 60611-2795; e-mail: agalloway@ala.org.