Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Personal and professional correspondence, including 25 long letters from Professor Henry F. Herbig; manuscripts (mainly speeches); specifications for patents in electrical fields; technical and personal photographs; and memorabilia. Included is a copy of the famous "shot in hand" x-ray photograph, ca. 1896, one of the first ever to be taken. This collection also contains the correspondence, manuscripts, documents, and memorabilia of Professor Pupin's daughter, Varvara Smith, and his son-in-law, Louis Graham Smith. His daughter's letters and documents deal with her financial difficulties, her administration of Pupin's estate and her claims against Columbia University. Louis G. Smith's letters deal with his anti-Communist sentiments and his manuscripts are mainly ideas for popular songs and plays. There are three letters (photostatic copies) to Smith from Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Correspondence, manuscripts, notes, diaries, documents, photographs, audio tape recordings, printed materials, scrapbooks, and sketches and drafts of portraits. Her finished portraits on ivory are cataloged separately for the Art Collection (q.v.). The collection includes her correspondence with friends and clients; manuscripts of her articles, lectures, and many unpublished autobiographical drafts; pencil sketches, watercolor drafts, and photoprints of her portraits on ivory; photographs of her family amd travels; clippings and other printed materials; and three scrapbooks of clippings and memorabilia. There is cataloged correspondence from Arnold Genthe, S.I. Hayakawa, Karen Horney, Burges Johnson, Dwight Macdonald, and Alice B. Toklas, etc.

The collection includes correspondence, manuscripts, documents, photographs, and printed materials. Most of the correspondence dates from the 1950s and early 1960s, when Boi︠a︡rint︠s︡ev was head of the Ob'edinenie chinov Kornilovskago udarnago polka, an emigre veterans' organization, and relates to the affairs of this and similar groups. The manuscripts include campaign memoirs and a memoir called, "Epokha 1937-1965 gg." dealingwith events in the world of the White veteran's groups written by Boi︠a︡rint︠s︡ev; and a memoir of the First World War by a Captain I︠A︡. G. Shinin. Official documents relating to the military service of both Boi︠a︡rint︠s︡ev and Shinin are found in the collection, as well as some regimental and army orders of the Revolution-Civil War period. There is a photograph of Genral L.G. Kornilov; a large number of photographs of the White Army encampment at Gallipoli, of the Imperial family, White officers' reunions, funerals, dedication ceremonies etc. Printed materials include: a folder of printed engravings of varied content (portraits of the Imperial family, White officers, members of the White Russian community in Shanghai; and illustrations of various incidents in the Civil War; a complete set through 1965 of the emigre newsletter "Kornilovt︠s︡y" (Nos. 1-6; 1952_65); 7 issues of the "Vestnik pervopokhodnika" (Nos. 82-91; Aug. '68-May '70); and books, pamphlets, and jubilee volumes concerning Tsar Nicholas II, the White movement, General Kornilov, and the Mladorossy.

Contemporary engravings, lithographs, carte-de-visite photographs, and memorabilia; 20th century drawings and reproductions of portraits of Lincoln, his family, and his contemporaries. Among the portraits of Lincoln are a charcoal sketch by the sculptor Gutzon Borglum, lithographs by Currier and Ives, photographs by Mathew Brady and his studio. Memorabilia in the collection include bookends and sculptures, a dinner plate, a carved plaque, a reproduction of a death mask, a mourning ribbon, silk commemorative badges, and a hair ornament worn by Mrs Lincoln, in a leather-covered trinket box with the President's initials on it.

Correspondence, manuscripts, and documents relating to the printing firm of John Nichols and Son, covering a period from 1713, when the original firm of William Bowyer, the Elder (1663-1737), was burned, until the death of John Gough Nichols in 1873. The correspondence concerns primarily the social and domestic affairs of John Nichols (1745-1826) and of his family from 1766 to 1812. Scattered letters from business associates and minor authors are included, among them a group of letters from John Pridden (1758-1825), author and antiquary. The correspondence of John Bowyer Nichols (1779-1863) concerns the Nichols firm from 1799 to 1855. There are also several letters of, and relating to, William Bowyer (1699-1777), the senior partner of John Nichols. The collection also contains a volume of letters of condolence written at the time of John Nichols' death. The manuscripts in the collection consist primarily of the poetry of John Nichols, much of which was published in newspapers of the late 18th century. The manuscripts of John Bowyer Nichols concern his father and family. There are also contracts, bills, receipts, accounts, pamphlets, broadsides, engravings, and a group of 277 portraits.

Correspondence, manuscripts, and documents relating to the printing firm of John Nichols and Son, covering a period from 1713, when the original firm of William Bowyer, the Elder (1663-1737), was burned, until the death of John Gough Nichols in 1873. The correspondence concerns primarily the social and domestic affairs of John Nichols (1745-1826) and of his family from 1766 to 1812. Scattered letters from business associates and minor authors are included, among them a group of letters from John Pridden (1758-1825), author and antiquary. The correspondence of John Bowyer Nichols (1779-1863) concerns the Nichols firm from 1799 to 1855. There are also several letters of, and relating to, William Bowyer (1699-1777), the senior partner of John Nichols. The collection also contains a volume of letters of condolence written at the time of John Nichols' death. The manuscripts in the collection consist primarily of the poetry of John Nichols, much of which was published in newspapers of the late 18th century. The manuscripts of John Bowyer Nichols concern his father and family. There are also contracts, bills, receipts, accounts, pamphlets, broadsides, engravings, and a group of 277 portraits.

Theatrical memorabilia such as programs, playbills, photographs, engravings, and prints. Although there are some playbills as early as 1770, most of the material is from the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition to plays there is some material relating to concerts, operettas, musical comedies, musical revues, and movies. The majority of the collection centers around Shakespeare. Included with an unbound copy of each play (The Edinburgh Shakespeare Folio Edition) there are portraits, engravings, and photographs of actors in their roles; playbills; programs; cast lists; other types of illustrative material; reviews of various productions; and other printed material. Such well known names as George Arliss, Sarah Bernhardt, the Booths, John Drew, the Barrymores, and William Gillette are included in this collection.

The collection consists of several sub-divisions, such as bookplates with a printed date (over 300 bookplates, 1587-1800), ecclesiastical bookplates of the 17th and 18th centuries, and a large group relating to Cambridge and Oxford Universities (mostly 18th century). Well represented are bookplates of libraries, starting with a German bookplate, ca. 1580. Among the library bookplates of some significance are large dated German bookplates of the Royal Library, Munich, the earliest being dated 1614, the bookplate of the medical library, Frankfort, 1676, representing the view of a 17th century library, and a large collection of early American library bookplates.

Correspondence, documents and manuscripts from late seventeenth and eighteenth century France, especially from the French Revolution, collected by Sam Schaefler. Authors include J.B. Colbert Torcy and the Duchesse Du Lude. Many of the items from the French Revolution represent the work of the Committee of Public Safety and the Committee of General Security. French Revolutionary leaders represented in the collection include François-Antoine Boissy D'Anglas, Jean-Baptiste-Noel Bouchotte, Pierre Joseph Cambon, Lazare Carnot, Jean-Marie Collot D'Herbois, l'Abbʹe de Fauchet, Philippe-Antoine Merlin de Douai, Jean Victor Moreau. C.A. Prieur-Duvernois, and Antoine Joseph Santerre. In addition, the collection includes a letter from the Danish physicist Hans Christian Oersted to Sir John Herschel, a letter by the French poet Romain Rolland, a document of the Philadelphia Artists' Fund Society of 1846 with signatures of its officers, and an autograph letter and a photograph of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Correspondence, manuscripts, playscripts, screenplays, diaries, documents, contracts, financial records, photographs, phonograph records, motion pictures, playbills, posters, sheet music, cartoons, art work, memorabilia, scrapbooks, and printed materials. . The collection consists chiefly of correspondence and production files relating to the creation, production, and performance of their works for stage, screen, radio, and television, such as Leave It To Me and Kiss Me Kate (with music by Cole Porter), Boy Meets Girl, and My Three Angels. Correspondence (with twentieth century authors, playwrights, musicians, political figures, and actors) includes: George Abbott, Jean Arthur, Bennett Cerf, Katharine Cornell, Jo Davidson, George and Ira Gershwin, Alec Guinness, W. Averell Harriman, Lilli Lehmann, Mary Martin, Laurence Olivier, Mary Pickford, Cole Porter, Regina Resnick, Eleanor Roosevelt, Robert E. Sherwood, Lincoln Steffens, Kurt Weill, Rebecca West, and Thornton Wilder. There is also correspondence concerning Bella Spewack's work with the New York Girls' Scholarship, UNRA, and the Sports Center of Israel. In addition to the production files, there are manuscripts and typescript drafts for novels, short stories, and articles by the Spewacks.