College and Research Libraries


catalog designed to perform definite func-
tions. There will still be rules, but they will 
be fewer, let us hope, and less inviolate, the 
attention of the cataloger being focused pri-
marily on the objectives to be achieved. 

For the administrator, the new code may 
mean some reduction in the cost of catalog-
ing, although this is doubtful. It will cer-
tainly check for a time, however, additional 
increases in costs that might have otherwise 
accrued from the further elaboration of 
"bibliographical" techniques. 

For the cataloging profession as a whole, it 
should mean unification again on the basis of 
an acceptable standard of descriptive catalog:. 
ing, with an immediate revival of cooperative 
enterprise. There is every reason to believe 

that all or most of the libraries which have 
recently departed from Library of Congress 
practice will find it possible and desirable to 
adopt the new code, not only because it will do 
what they have already been trying to do, but 
also because the new code will enable them to 
do it better. 

In preparing this new code, the Processing 
Department of the Library of Congress has 
assumed a great responsibility.. If the work 
is finished with the same display of imagina-
tion, reason, ~nd courage which has distin-
guished it thus far, the responsibility will have 
been nobly discharged. We now have the 
principles; we eagerly await the code. 

Raynard C. Swank 

Resources for Research 

The First Century of the fohn Carter Brown 
Library, a History wt'th a Guide to the 
Collections. By Lawrence C. Wroth. 
Providence, R.I., The Associates of the 
John Carter Brown Library, 1946. vi, 88p. 

William Andrew Clark Memorial Library, 
Report of th irst Decade, 1934-1944. 
[Edited by Lawrence Clark Powell.] 
Berkeley and Los ' Angeles, Calif., Uni-
versity of California Press, 1946. vii, 78p. 
The psychology of custodianship of rare 

books has undergone certain rather profound 
but inevitable changes in recent decades. Ad-
ministrators of special collections for literary 
and historical research have become increas-
ingly active in carrying out a responsibility 
which is at least twofold, and "preservation" 
and "availability for scholarly use" are com-
panion requirements in today's scheme of 
service for the library that finds itself pos-
sessed of valuable books and manuscripts. 
This is not to infer that librarians of the 
past have not understood the nature of their 
responsibility but only that the means of 
meeting it have not always been at hand. It 
has been necessary for administrators to 
devise standards-often complicated and al-
ways costly to apply-whereby the two ob-
jectives could be brought into accord. And 
before that could be done; it had to be real-
ized that the objectives are not irrevocably 
at opposite poles from each other. Curators 
of the watchdog type had to be persuaded 

JULYJ 1947 

that books are, for the most part, quite sturdy 
objects and not fragile things with which no 
scholar, no matter how righteous his need, 
is to be trusted. They had to be shown that 
their cause would be strengthened and their 
function made more comprehensible if the 
sterner rules were applied only to those books 
that are truly fragile-illuminated manu-
scripts, books printed on brittle paper, historic 
bindings, and the like. On the other hand, 
the scholar has had to submit to reading under 
supervisiOn. No longer may he stuff a rare 
colonial tract in his pocket, to be mulled over 
in the comfort of a private office or cubicle. 
That is the prerogative of ownership, and 
the books and manuscripts contained in a 
research library are not the property of any 
one scholar but of all scholars. There is 
simply no choice in the matter. 

The two progress reports under considera-
tion here relate to the John Carter Brown 
and William Andrews Clark libraries, and 
furnish excellent examples of the modern 
approach to the problems of administering 
large and important collections of rarities, near 
rarities, and basic resources. In addition, a 
third facet of the responsibility of custodian-
ship is brought forcibly to the forefront of 
attention-that of assuring constant and intel-
ligent growth. Both discussions begin by -
tracing the origins of the respective collections 
which were founded and fostered as the 
personal hobbies of the men whose names 

281 



they bear but which have since become identi-
fied with great universities. Each treatise 
then undertakes to describe in general terms 
the content of the collection with which it 
deals and to discuss the preferable directions 
that future development should take. The 
fact that the reports show clearly what the 
availability of the collections means to the 
relevant fields of scholarship, with emphasis 
on the larger usefulness which such collec-
tions acquire when they are combined with 
research library facilities, cannot fail to en-
courage and point up further benefactions 
on the part of private collectors. 

The two reports are welcome additions 
to a notable file of predecessors, which include 
such useful titles as The Whys and Where-
fores of the William L. Clements Library 
(1930); The Huntington Library Collections 
(Bulletin No. · I, 1931); The University 
[Chicago] Libraries ( 1933); The Library 
of Harvard University (1934, 4th ed.); 
Handbook of the Newberry Library ( 1938); 
A Faculty Survey of the University of Penn-
sylvania Libraries ( 1940) ; The Pierpont 
Morgan Library, Review of Activities .. · . 
1936 through 1940 (1941); The John 
Crerar Library, 1895-1944 ( 1945); The Li-
brary Resources of the University of North 
Carolina ( 1945) ; and The Yale Collections 
( 1946). The above is by no means intended 
to be a definitive list; there are doubtless 
many similar studies that have escaped this 
reviewer's notice. In fact, a general bibli-
ography of the literature describing the re-
sources of university and research libraries 

. in the United States would be gratefully 
received by scholars everywhere. 

Physical Differences 

It is perhaps nothing amiss that the reports 
of the Brown and Clark libraries achieve 
success along quite different routes as regards 
physical format and textual treatment. In 
space, a continent separates Providence from 
Los Angeles, and in time, almost a century 
separates the inceptions of the two collections. 
Lawrence C. Wroth, librarian of the John 
Carter Brown Library since 1923, concludes 
that, although Mr. Brown's ultimate decision 
to concentrate on "the large-scale acquisition 
of Americana" cannot be dated certainly much 
before 1845, his essential interest in book 
collecting can be traced to the early years 

of the nineteenth century. Cora Edgerton 
Sanders, curator of the Clark Memorial 
Library until her retirement in 1943 , records 
that Mr. Clark "began assembling his library 
about seventeen years before his death," 
which occurred on June 14, 1934. 

The differences in time and space are no-
where so strongly evident as in the typographi-
cal treatment of the two volumes. Mr. 
Wroth's essay is clothed with the quiet 
dignity which critics and printers alike accept 
as the unvarying hallmark of the Merry-
mount Press; the discussion of the Clark 
library is printed in that lively and colorful 
style which has come to be identified (even 
this somewhat nostalgic ex-patriot from the 
Pacific Coast wonders on what grounds) as 
the "California School of Printing." To 
dismiss thus lightly the very estimable typo-
graphical achievements of Messrs. Bianchi 
and Farquhar as exemplified in these volumes 
is perhaps less than justice, but one inevitably 
expects the best of printing from those master 
craftsmen. The books now under discussion 
bolster such expectations. 

Mr. Wroth presents his report of the 
collection in his charge in three main sections: 
"A Century of Purpose," containing a brief 
history of the library; "An Analysis of the 
Collections;" and "The Work of the Li-
brary." The first part, as the subtitle sug-
gests, traces the development of the great 
repository of early Americana from the first 
decades of the nineteenth century. Of spe-
cial interest is the discussion of the forma-
tion, around the middle of the century, of 
Mr. Brown's policy of collecting only books 
of American interest printed before 1801. 
"Throughout the Library's changes of status," 
writes Mr. Wroth, "as the possession of two 
later private owners and of Brown Univer~ 
sity, that boundary, though for reasons dif~ 
ferent from those which moved Mr. Brown, 
has never beeri changed." Elsewhere he 
writes what should be engrossed on the walls 
of every collector's library-"There is no 
virtue in age of itself, but continuity and 
steadily maintained purpose are excellent 
things in the formation of book collections. 
Inevitably libraries possessing these attributes 
are made up of books and groups of books 
which newer institutions must seek in vain." 
No one could have written that statement 
with better evidence at his beck than Mr. 

282 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Wroth has in the treasures of the John 
Carter Brown Library-many of them 
unique, far more of them forever beyond the 
budgetary reach of less foresighted libraries. 

Part II, "An Analysis of the Collections," 
comprises "a conspectus of the principal 

· categories which make up the collection, at-
tempting appraisal of each of these by com-
ment based upon experience in their practical 
utilization and by a statistical comparison of 
their contents with the totals found in stand-
ard catalogues and bibliographies." The li-
brary now contains about thirty thousand 
books, including bibliographical aids. In the 
section devoted to "Pre-Discovery Science and 
Geography" are to be found some three hun-
dred works from the presses of Aldus and 
his descendants, which, in the opinion of Mr. 
Wroth, embody "texts in which the thoughts 
and imagination of the ancient world are set 
forth with medieval and Renaissance com-
mentary." For the "Period of Discovery and 
Exploration, I492-I550," there are some three 
hundred titles, including 50 per cent of the 
entries in Harrisse's standard bibliography 
of the period, plus forty-five titles and editions 
not listed by Harrisse. 1 

Latin American Titfes 

Titles concerned with Latin American 
history and description are abundant, number-
ing about ten thousand and including some 
nineteen _hundred items that were printed in 
the Western Hemisphere. There are seventy-
three titles printed in Mexico City from 
I544-I6oo, comprising about 3 I per cent of 
the 232 titles listed by Medina and believed 
to be "as large as any group in that category 
now existing in a public or private library 
in Europe or America." Nineteen of thirty-
two imprints produced in Lima before I604 
are present in the Brown library, and more 
than 50 per cent of the listed Brazilian works 
issued before I 8oo. "We feel that these 
works combine with our Spanish-American 
sources to form a contribution to the history 
of America almost unrivalled in its com-
pleteness." 

Early United States sources are provided 
in great abundance: The Southeast is repre-
sented by some 450 titles, the Spanish South-
west by I98 of 34I noticed in Wagner's 
bibliography, and for New France, Louisiana, 
and the French West Indies the proportion 

JULYJ 1947 

of Brown holdings against standard lists is 
invariably from 50 to 8o per cent of the 
totals. 

"No department of the Library is more 
satisfactory to the student than the section 
on British America," writes Mr. Wroth, 
and gives the figures to show why that is so. 
Without exception, the same high percentage 
of known titles is to be found on the Brown 
library shelves. To continue further in this 
vein would be tiresomely repetitious, and the 
interested student is herewith referred to 
Mr. Wroth's discussion for the figures re-
lating to Brown holdings in the literature of 
the American Revolution, the Constitution, 
western expansion, native American lan-
guages, church history, etc. One more sig-
nificant set of statistics should be noted, 
however. Of all American imprints before 
I8oo listed in the Evans bibliography, the 
Brown library has 7382, or 2I per cent of 
the total, placing that library in a class with 
the American Antiquarian Society, and the 
Congressional, New Y ark Public, and Hunt-
ington libraries. 

The third section of the book, "The W ark 
of the Library," is in many respects the most 
interesting, for in it Mr. Wroth discusses 
in general terms the direct contribution of 
the John Carter Brown Library to the world 

. of scholarship. That contribution takes defi-
nite forms: in bibliographical study of the 
collections by the faculty and staff; in service 
to local and visiting students; in correspond-
ence with distant students; in exhibitions and 
addresses; and in the publication and photo-
graphic services. These are all carefully de-
scribed and the reader is left with the feeling 
that there is immense justice. and promise 
in Mr. Wroth's closing words: "even while 
acclaiming our age and long tradition, while 
enumerating . our possessions or boasting our 
strength in one or another category, we still 
hold heartily to the conviction that without 
service all these things are vanity. . .. At 
the beginning of its second century, the John 
Carter Brown Library is settling into its 
stride." 

The report of the William Andrews Clark 
Library was prepared under the able editor-
ship of Lawrence Clark Powell, director of 
libraries at the University of California at 
Los Angeles. With an enthusiastic and active 
faculty and staff to draw upon, Dr. Powell 

283 

-, 



followed the plan adopted m 1940 for the 
survey of the University of Pennsylvania 
Libraries. The report is a symposium, with 
each major strength of the Clark library the 
subject of special study by the authority best 
qualified to judge it. Thus the historical 
background of the collection is discussed by 
those who helped develop it and interest the 
founder in placing it in the care of the you.ng 
university: Ernest Carroll Moore, former 
provost and vice president of the university; 
Edward Augustus Dickson, chairman of the 
southern committee of the board of regents; 
Cora Edgerton Sanders, Mr. Clark's li-
brarian, 1901-03, 1908-34, and curator of 
the Clark Memorial Library until I943; and 
Robert D. Farquhar; the architect of the 
beautiful building on West Adams Boulevard 
that houses the fast-growing collection. 

English Drama to 1700 

"English Drama to 1700" is the subject 
of an essay by Hugh G. Dick, assistant pro-
fessor of English in the university, who points 
out that the library's Shakespeare collection 
ranks no lower than fourth among those in 
American universities. There are excellent 
resources for the study of Shakespeare's 
contemporaries and close followers, but the 
principal strength for the period is in dramatic 
works from 1640 to I700. No more than 
representation has been sought for Renais-
sance literature, because of the close prox-
imity of the Huntington collections, but pre-
eminence in Restoration drama is the goal of 
an active acquisitions program. Dr. Dick 
looks toward virtual completeness in that field 
within the next decade. 

"The Age of Dryden" is the subject of a 
discussion by Sigurd B. Hustvedt. Mr. Clark's 
interest in Dryden inevitably extended to that 
poet's predecessors and contemporaries, es-
pecially those in France. That broadening of 
scope has had a strong influence on the uni-
versity's recent program of expansion, which 
is now "to concentrate attention upon Dryden 
and to his contemporaries, under a rather 
flexible definition of literary forms and 
merits.:. "In such a program," continued 
Prof. Hustvedt, "the period would have some-
what elastic measurements, so as to include 
Milton at the beginning, Swift and Defoe 
at the end. . . . The Dryden thus to take 
shape would be no recluse in a garret, but. 
a literary man in a world of letters." Some 

notion of the strength of the framework on 
which this acquisitions program is to be built 
may be had from the fact that of 197 Dryden 
items listed by Wing, I 73 are m the Clark 
library. 

The Eighteenth Century 

"The Eighteenth Century" is discussed 
by Edward N. Hooker, who notes that "the 
strength of the Library holds until about 
I 735 , after which date the entries in the 
chronological catalogue become notably 
fewer." There are several strong representa-
tions, chief among which are those of Swift 
and Pope (the latter being the object of 
careful searching during the past decade), 
Addison and Steele , Rowe and Congreve, 
John Gay, and many lesser literati. 

"Music and Musical Literature" is treated 
by Walter H. Rubsamen, assistant professor 
of music. Mr. Clark's extensive collection 
of orchestral music was bequeathed to the · 
Los Angeles Public Library, but a notable 
group of musical reference books, full and 
miniature scores of standard orchestral com-
positions, operas, and chamber music, and a 
small collection of letters and manuscripts 
of eminent musicians were included in the 
Clark library. Around this nucleus the 
university is building a reference library, in-
cluding standard bibliographies, representa-
tive serial publications, and collected editions. 
Considerable stress has been laid on the acqui-
sition of original musical works issued from 
I6oo to I8oo. 

Nineteenth-Century Holdings 

"The Library's holdings in the nineteenth 
century," writes Franklin P. Rolfe, "repre-
sent largely the interests of the donor and 
seldom approach completion in any category." 
The notable exception is the distinguished 
collection of Wildeiana, of which a special 
catalog was compiled by Robert Ernest Cowan 
and the founder. The collection includes a 
selective group of manuscripts and letters, 
among which is the correspondence written 
by Wilde from Reading Gaol to his friends, 
Robert Ross and More Adey. Other nine-
teenth-century authors are represented to a 
lesser degree, although the works of the 
romantic writers, Byron, .Shelley, and Keats, 
are present in some abundance, and certain 
Victorians (the Brownings, Tennyson, Mor-

284 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



ris, Fitzgerald, Thackeray, Dickens, and 
Stevenson) are fairly strong. 

Lindley Bynum, special assistant to the 
president, describing the holdings in western 
Americana, notes that the Montana collec-
tion, purchased in 1924, contain~ nearly two 
thousand bound volumes, nearly three thou-
sand pamphlets, magazines, excerpts, and the 
like, as well as numerous maps, pictures, 
unbound newspapers, books of clippings, letter 
files, and legal papers. The collection was 
notably streo.gthened in 1939 by the purchase 
of the Willard S. Morse library of Bret 
Harte material. "Thus," concludes Mr. 
Bynum, "although the western Americana in 
the Clark library should be regarded as 
supplemental to the western materials in the 
University Library, in at least two fields of 
Montana history and Bret Harte it may be 
used as a source." 

Fine Printing -

One further facet of the Clark library is 
to be noticed, that of "Fine Printing," which 
is discussed by H. Richard Archer, now in 
charge of the library. Mr. Clark, he tells us, 
was more than just a collector of fine books. 
He was "so much interested in fine printing 
that he would select from his collection some 
book of which he was especially fond, see 
that it was properly edited, and have it re-
printed." In one instance, at least, his editors 
failed him; it in no respect detracts from 
the memory of this generous philanthropist 

I 

to recall that at his behest and expense the 
Wise forgery of the famous "Reading Son-
nets" was reproduced ' in careful facsimile. 

Mr. Clark's collection of the Kelmscott 
and Doves presses is virtually complete, as 
is that of the work of his favorite among 
western printers, 1 ohn Henry Nash. Other 
modern presses and certain early ones are 
represented by typical specimens. For the 
practical side of the graphic arts, there is 
good coverage in printing practice, type found-
ing, .bookselling, binding, illustration, descrip-
tive bibliography, and related topics. Since 
the library has become the charge of the 
university, reference books on the graphic 
arts have more than doubled in number. 

The William Andrews Clark Library is a 
young one, and it is the property of a young 
university. One predominating characteristic 
of youth is the tendency toward growth, and 
in this the Clark library is no exception. 
At the time · of the death of its founder in 
1934 it numbered eighteen thousand volumes. 
It ha~ nearly doubled in size in the interven-
ing decade. As Dr. Powell's report stresses, 
that growth has not been haphazard and un-
controlled but carefully planned and fostered 
to bring to it the maximum of scholarly use-
fulness, in accord with the ideas of the 
founder as they were expressed both in the 
deed of gift and in the way in which he 
himself developed his collection. That pro-
cedure might well serve as a model for li-
brarians.-Roland Baughman. 

Implications of Armed Services Educational Programs 

Opinions on Gains for American Education 
from Wartime Armed Services Training. 
By M. M. Chambers. A Preliminary Ex-
ploratory Report for the Commission on 
Implications of Armed Services Educa-
tional Programs. Washington, D.C., 
American Council on Education, 1946. vii, 
78p. 

Utilizing Human Talent. Armed Servi'ces 
Selection and Classification Procedures. 
By Frederick B. Davis for the Commission 
on Implications of Armed Services Educa-
tional Programs. Washington, D.C., 
American Council on Education, 1947. ix, 
85P. 

Audio-Visual Aids in the Armed Services. 
Implications for American Education. By 

JULY~ 1947 

1 ohn R. Miles and Charles R. Spain for 
the Commission on Implications of Armed 
Services Educational Programs. Washing-
ton, D.C., American Council on Education, 
1947· ~i, 96p. 
About two years ago the American Coun-

cil on Education received a grant of $150,000 
from the Carnegie < lundation and the Gen-
eral Education Board for a study "to find 
effective means of evaluating military experi-
ence for its potential significance to civilian 
institutions and to facilitate the understand-
ing and adoption of those features of the mili-
tary and educational programs which will im-
prove education and training in civilian life." 1 

1 Zook, George F . Educational Record 27:261, July 
1946. 

285 

I