Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1013

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

0.4 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

University of Pennsylvania Library records regarding the opening of the Rare Book Room, 1947, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1947 (inclusive)

Creator:

University of Pennsylvania. Libraries

Form:

Administrative records and Correspondence

Abstract:

The Rare Book Room at the University of Pennsylvania opened on May 27, 1947. The opening was attended by more than five hundred guests, and speeches were given by Dr. Charles W. David, Director of Libraries; President George W. McClelland; Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach; and the primary speaker for the evening, Randolph G. Adams, Director of the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan. The collection contains administrative documents pertaining to the planning of the event including program details, correspondence, acceptances, and regrets.

The Rare Book Room at the University of Pennsylvania opened on May 27, 1947. The opening was attended by more than five hundred guests, and speeches were given by Dr. Charles W. David, Director of Libraries, President George W. McClelland, Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, and the primary speaker for the evening, Randolph G. Adams, Director of the William L. Clements Library of the University of Michigan. Dr. David's remarks announced the establishment of the Rare Book Department; President McClelland described the recent accomplishments of the library; Dr. Rosenbach spoke to the importance of the collection to the greater Philadelphia community; and Mr. Clements discussed the importance of institutions able to care for rare books, what made a book "rare," and the value of books that are used to discuss subjects other than their own. "When President McClelland and Dr. David decided that the University should do something more about its rare books," said Mr. Clements, "they probably had in mind something more than the fact of numerical scarcity–they understood that they were dealing with the documentary evidences of our cultural heritage. In planning the rare book room I suspect that these officials meant to safeguard some treasures whose emotional and intellectual values are so high they are difficult to compute. Of course I cannot speak for them–nor say that is what they meant to do–but, to repeat the quotation from the late Horace Howard Furness, I think that is what they ought to have meant." (Clements, 21-22)

Remarks by Randolph G. Adams at the Opening of the Rare Book Room, University of Pennsylvania Library, May 27, 1947. Randolph Greenfield Adams. University of Pennsylvania Library: Philadelphia. 1968.

The collection contains administrative documents pertaining to the planning for the opening of the Rare Book Room at the University of Pennsylvania on May 27, 1947. The primary correspondent in the collection is Charles W. David (1885-1984), who was the director of the University of Pennsylvania Library at the time and who appears to have been the driving force behind this event. The collection includes letters to speakers, seating arrangements, sample invitations, lists of attendees, a draft of remarks, and event details. Much of the material in this collection consists of correspondence regarding attendance. The folder, "Special correspondence," as titled by the creators of the collection, includes letters to individuals who were asked to host specific tables at the dinner preceding the reception, acceptances and regrets from people who were presumably high profile, and thank you notes which were written after the event. The "Special acceptances," again presumably noting high profile guests, were separated by the event planners and are alphabetized by the guests' names. The remaining folders contain general acceptances and regrets, alphabetized by guests' names.