Honnold/Mudd Library Special Collections

Edward S. Curtis Photographs

A major subject emphasis of Special Collections, Honnold/Mudd, is western American history; the Mason Collection, a gift to Pomona College in 1915, one of the largest collections of books on the history of the American west in the state, is the cornerstone of our western Americana collection. One of the many treasures in the Mason Collection is a first edition of The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis, comprising 20 volumes of large photogravures in portfolios and 20 text volumes, also profusely illustrated with photogravures. Now, a collection of 50 large portfolio photographs, newly printed from Curtis’ original glass plate negatives, given to CMC and housed in Special Collections, join the original Curtis photogravures for study. Curtis’ still-controversial project took more than thirty years, from 1907-1930, his mission to “…record all of the important tribes of the United States and Alaska that still retain to a considerable degree their...customs and traditions.”

Ronald A. Knox Library for the Oxford Collection

A complete library of the published works and some papers of the prolific writer and Catholic priest Ronald Arbuthnott Knox has been added to the Oxford Collection, one focus of which is the influence of Oxford men and women on the world. Knox attended Balliol College and later became a Fellow as well as chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford. He was first ordained an Anglican priest in 1911 then converted to Roman Catholicism in 1918. In his lifetime he published more than fifty books on theology, including his translation of the Vulgate, begun in 1939 and published in 1955. The Ronald A. Knox Collection includes not only his theological writings in first edition but also his popular detective novels—he was a prominent member of The Detection Club whose members included Dorothy L. Sayers, G. K. Chesterton, and Agatha Christie—and acrostics books. The Knox Papers include drafts of his writings, correspondence, and clippings by and about him.

Activist Newspapers from the 1960s - 1970s

A gift of single inaugural issues of several activist newspapers published from 1966-1975 join our collection of The Berkeley Tribe to add a wider range of titles and depth to our print newspaper holdings in Special Collections. These newspapers provide researchers with the opportunity to study how regional groups, especially college students, participated in and commented on national issues such as the environment, the Vietnam War, nuclear power, and other movements of this tumultuous period. Among the titles in the collection are, to name a few, Barb on Strike, Cosmic Outlaws, Jabberwock, Our Struggle, and Revolution (all from California), Outlaw Times (Texas), Guerilla (Michigan), and National Underground Review (New York). For a few titles we received a run of issues: Survival Times: Santa Barbara Resource Recovery Program, Spider, and Altar Native Sun.

Scottish History and Literature

Two generous donors have given more than 700 volumes on the history and literature of Scotland covering the 17th through early 20th centuries, the majority of the books with English or Scottish imprints. Specific subject strengths of these two gifts include regional histories, especially of the Highlands; family histories; diaries, memoirs and biographies of prominent Scots; and editions of Scottish authors. Many volumes from the Scottish Text Society’s first and subsequent series are noteworthy additions as well.

History of Science and Technology

Through the generosity of the Hoover family, who gave a small amount of money for the Herbert Hoover Collection of Mining and Metallurgy, we have acquired some interesting new titles to further develop Mr. Hoover’s library of rare books, collected by Mr. and Mrs. Hoover while they were translating Agricola’s De Re Metallica (1912). Jacob Leupold’s Prodromus Bibliothecæ Metallicæ (Wolfenbüttel, 1732), published posthumously, is a bibliography of most of the writings on mineralogy including historical and theological writings up to 1730. Briefe über die Insel Anglesea: Vorzüglich über das Dasige Kupfer-Bergwerk und die Dazu Gehörigen Schmelzwerke und Fabriken by Augustin G. L. Lentin (Leipzig, 1800), a treatise on the workings of the Parys Mountain copper mine in Wales, until 1802 the largest copper mine in the world. Dr. August Breithaupt worked most of his life on developing a Linnean-style taxonomy for minerals; Kurze Charakteristik des Mineral-Systems (Freiberg, 1820) is an early work which presents Breithaupt’s classifications of known and newly-discovered minerals.

Aviation History

We have added more than 50 notable titles to the Carruthers Aviation Collection, a gift to Pitzer College; noteworthy is the rare first edition of Barthélemy Faujas de Saint-Fond’s two-volume history of the earliest balloon experiments, Description des Expériences de la Machine Aérostatique de MM. de Montgolfier (Paris, 1783) and Premiere Suite de la Description des Expériences Aérostatiques de mm. de Montgolfier…tome second (Paris, 1784). Other topics covered by this gift include aeronautical engineering and published works by and about aviators, two important emphases of the Carruthers Collection.

Music

When Engelbert Humperdinck took the full score of his now beloved opera Hänsel und Gretel to his publisher B. Schott’s Söhne, the firm was skeptical about the success of an opera based on a Brothers Grimm fairy-tale. Reflecting their caution, Schott limited the first edition press run of the full score to fifty copies. When the opera premiered in Weimar on December 23, 1893, under the direction of Richard Strauss, it was heralded as an instant success. Within the first year of its première Hänsel und Gretel was produced at over fifty theaters and, in respond to popular demand, a touring company was formed solely to perform the work across Europe.

Recently, Special Collections acquired one of the fifty first editions of the opera through the Lawrence Seymour Opera fund. Only the Overture is engraved in this edition, the remainder of the score is printed as a lithographic facsimile of the composer’s manuscript. The difference in printing technique is attributed to the publisher’s reluctance to invest funds in engraving a full score of an opera that he thought may flop. Initial investors may be surprised to find that one-hundred and eleven years later Hänsel und Gretel remains a profitable offering in the Schott music catalogue.

What makes the Claremont copy of the opera unique is the performance directions annotated in the score by Willem de Haan (1849-1935), conductor at the Hoftheater in Darmstadt. The score includes Haan’s metrical and tempo markings, corrections to the musical text, and stage directions for the productions he conducted during his tenure at Darmstadt from1894-1914.

Denison Library Special Collections

Pearl Buck Collection

The gift of a book collector and bibliophile, the substantial collection on the author and Noble Prize winner Pearl Buck numbers more than 225 books, memorabilia, correspondence, and journal articles. Included are scarce editions of several of her novels, various editions of her juvenile titles, and biographies of Buck. The collection will be the focus of a student curated exhibition at Denison Library in November and December 2004.

William Morris Collection

Beautifully augmenting Denison Library’s collection of Kelmscott Press books printed by William Morris is the recent gift of over 80 volumes of books and ephemera by and about the nineteenth century designer, author, and publisher. Here are books by and about Morris including the 24 volume Collected Works bound by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, London. Of particular interest is the ephemera which includes proof sheets from the Kelmscott Press, catalogs of exhibitions, auction catalogs, clippings, and pamphlets.

Artists’ Books Collection

Artists continue to make imaginative and creative books and book structures. Recent additions include books by Lucie Lambert, Carolee Campbell (Ninja Press), Julie Chen (Flying Fish Press), and Claire Van Vliet (Janus Press). New illustrators of Alice in Wonderland are represented as are several whimsical alphabet books. Recently acquired books made by students at UCSB and Scripps College are featured in Denison’s current exhibition.

Carrie Marsh
Honnold/Mudd Library
carrie.marsh@libraries.claremont.edu

Holly Gardinier
Honnold/Mudd Library
holly.gardinier@libraries.claremont.edu