Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 17-31, 1999

Volume 27, Number 32

Beinecke exhibition celebrates
the art of collecting books

Ever since Yale's beginnings in 1701, when a group of Connecticut ministers made individual donations of books to found the "Collegiate School," the University has depended for its growth and excellence on men and women with a passion for books.

Some of the treasures these men and women have passed on to the University will be on view in "Collecting," an exhibition at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library that focuses on the art of collecting books and manuscripts and celebrates some of Yale's great collectors.

The exhibition was prepared by Joseph W. Reed '54, professor of English and American studies at Wesleyan University, who is the chair of the Yale Library Associates.

It includes selections from, among others, Chauncey Brewster Tinker, Class of 1899, a collector of British literary manuscripts; Frank Altschul '08, who collected George Meredith materials and French illustrated books; Wilmarth B. Lewis '18, who founded the Lewis Walpole Library in Farmington, Connecticut; Paul Mellon '29, the donor of the Yale Center for British Art; and James Tinker Babb '32, head librarian at Yale from 1948 to 1965 and a collector of the English eccentric William Beckford.

In addition, Herman W. Liebert '33, the first librarian of the Beinecke Library and a collector of Samuel Johnson, and two of the three brothers whose gift established the Beinecke Library -- Edwin J. Beinecke '09 and Frederick W. Beinecke '09 -- are also featured in the exhibit. While the third brother, Walter Beinecke, was not a collector, his children, Walter Beinecke Jr. and Betsy Beinecke Shirley, did collect books and are represented in the exhibit.

Selections from Walter Beinecke Jr.'s J. M. Barrie collection, including a manuscript for the revised version of "Peter Pan," and items from Shirley's collection of American children's literature are among the materials on view. Also on display are items from the largest assemblage of Goethe materials outside Germany, collected by William A. Speck, and from Curt von Faver du Faur's collection of 17th-century German literature.

Other highlights include:

* "The Mellon Chansonnier," a 15th-century Italian manuscript of secular songs that belonged to Princess Beatrice, wife of Hungarian King Matthias Corvinus;

* The Albergati Bible, copied and decorated for Cardinal Niccolo Albergati, who died in 1443;

* "Catholicon," a 1460 Latin dictionary that is the first substantial secular book printed from movable type;

* manuscript field maps and field notes of the Lewis and Clark expedition;

* one of 10 known copies of William Blake's "Jerusalem";

* William Wordsworth's manuscript additions and changes for the second addition of his "Lyrical Ballads" in the form of letters to his publisher in 1800;

* Thomas Hardy's manuscript of "Far from the Madding Crowd" (1874);

* Joseph Conrad's manuscript of "The Heart of Darkness" (1899); and

* Zora Neale Hurston's manuscript of "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (1930s).

The exhibition will remain on view through June 30.

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, located at 121 Wall St., is open for exhibition viewing Monday-Friday, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m., and on Saturday, 10 a.m.-
5 p.m. For further information, call 432-2977 or visit the library's website at www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/.

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