Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1751

Repository:

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

Extent:

• 7 linear feet
• 10 box(es)

Language Note:

Hirsch conducted correspondence and wrote publications in both English and German; both languages appear throughout the collection. The collection also contains some Latin, and there are one or two items in Dutch and Norwegian.

Preferred Citation:

Rudolf Hirsch papers, 1930 - 1989, Ms. Coll. 1751, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1930 - 1989 (inclusive)

Creator:

Hirsch, Rudolf and Hirsch, Rudolf, 1906-1990

Form:

offprints, Articles, and Correspondence

Abstract:

Rudolf Hirsch (1906 – 1990) was an American librarian and a historian of the early printed book, spending most of his career (1945 – 1974) as Associate Director of Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania. This collection consists of 7 linear feet of files arranged in four series that document Hirsch's research and writing on the early history of the printed book and his work in academic librarianship, including files related to Penn Libraries, dating from 1930 to 1989.

Rudolf Hirsch (1906 – 1990) was an American librarian and a historian of the early printed book, spending most of his career (1945 – 1974) as Associate Director of Libraries at the University of Pennsylvania. Born in Germany, he immigrated to the United States from Munich in 1933. In addition to degrees from the University of Munich and the University of Vienna, Hirsch received a library degree from the University of Chicago and a doctorate in history from the University of Pennsylvania. He had a longstanding research interest in the printing of vernacular translations of Latin classics during the first hundred years of printing. His publications include Printing, Selling, and Reading 1450 – 1550 (1967) and The Printed Word: Its Impact and Diffusion (Primarily in the 15th – 16th Centuries) (1978), as well as dozens of articles on book history and librarianship.

Source: The Penn Library Collections at 250: from Franklin to the Web (2000), "Chapter I: A Library in Retrospect", Ryan, Michael T. and obituary in The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 28, 1990.

This collection consists of 7 linear feet of files arranged in four series that document Hirsch's research and writing on the early history of the printed book and his work in academic librarianship, including files related to Penn Libraries, dating from 1930 to 1989. Hirsch worked and wrote in both English and German, so both languages occur throughout the collection.

Series 1, "Subject files", contains Hirsch's scholarly research, professional materials related to librarianship and his role as Associate Director of Libraries at Penn, and correspondence filed under name of correspondent or institution. Hirsch corresponded with librarians, colleagues, and booksellers over the course of decades. He routinely filed onion skin copies of his outgoing letters along with letters received. Of particular interest for the Penn Library is correspondence with Lea Professor of Medieval History and Director of the University of Pennsylvania Library Kennith M. Setton (Box 2, folder 29), which discusses Penn library operations and personal matters, and a systematically annotated copy of Outline of the Library of Congress Classification (1967 reprint), showing Penn Libraries' acquisition priorities (Box 2, folder 9). There are also several items related to collaboration among Philadelphia libraries in the 1940s, such as "Philadelphia Bibliographical Center and Union Library Catalogue: Documentation on a Regional Basis: Symposium on Post-War Activities" from 1944 (Box 2, folder 13) and "The Union Library Catalogue of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area 1936 - 1946: A Tenth Anniversary Report" from 1946 (Box 3, folder 2).

Series 2, "Notes", includes notebooks from library school courses at the University of Chicago, notebooks of research materials, four boxes of notecards, and a few folders of loose notes. Three of the four boxes of notecards document Hirsch's research process; one box contains Penn Libraries' policies and production statistics from the mid-1930s.

Series 3, "Publications by Hirsch", contains offprints of articles by Hirsch, most on topics in the early history of printing and the early book trade. Some are in German. Note that some drafts appear in Series 1.

Series 4, "Publications by others", consists of offprints and a few complete issues that were inscribed to Hirsch or had other evidence of his probable use. Offprints are in folders by last name of author but are not alphabetized within folders; some authors with a significant number of offprints are in folders of their own. Hirsch's wife Mildred Hirsch's article "From the Library of Pastorius" in a complete 1953 issue of The Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association also has a folder of its own. In addition to offprints and journal issues, the series contains a few miscellaneous publications and brochures for exhibits and conferences, some in German or Norwegian. Of note are publications from Germany in the 1930s: Internationale Literatur: Zentralorgan der Internationalen Vereinigung Revolutionärer Schriftsteller 6 (1935), which contains the enclosed pamphlets "Die Junge Garde" and "Die Rote Fahne", 1935 (Box 5, folder 25).