Needs Attention

The New Rare Book Room

During the construction of the northwest and south additions to Neilson Library, approximately 2,000 of the rarest books were in storage for about eighteen months. The new Rare Book Room was completed by October 1962, and the new wing was officially open. However, due to problems with the temperature and humidity controls, the rare book collection of approximately 7,000 items was not moved into its new quarters until February 1963. Fifty years later, maintaining a consistent climate in the Rare Book Room is still an issue.

Construction of the 1962 Neilson Library Wings

The site plan from July 1960, submitted by O’Connor & Kilham Architects of New York City, clearly shows the two small additions added to Neilson Library during 1961 and 1962. The construction photograph from January 1962 features the northwest wing, with Wright Hall (left) and the original 1909 library building to the right.

Fundraising for the 1962 Library Addition

The college’s Development Office conducted a fundraising campaign to solicit funds for remodeling and “a much-needed addition to the Library.” This photograph, which appeared in the Northampton Daily Hampshire Gazette on November 9, 1960, features Margaret L.

Plans for the 1962 Neilson Addition

Dorothy King’s Plans for the 1962 Rare Book Room

Dorothy King was intimately involved in the planning for the new Rare Book Room in the northwest addition to Neilson Library. Her attention to detail for the new reading room and exhibition area, curator’s office, workroom, and book stacks is revealed in her hand-drawn plan from January 1961. She also cut out models of pieces of furniture—in two scales—in order to properly design the new spaces.

Rare Books in Room 32

Early Book Studies at Smith

As interest in the arts of the book spread through the U.S. in the 1930s and 1940s, a number of New England colleges and universities introduced the discipline to undergraduates. In 1939 President William Allan Neilson invited Helmut Lehmann-Haupt, noted bibliographer and curator of rare books at Columbia University, to teach a new course at Smith on the history of the making of books and books as works of art.

Culling the Library Shelves for Rare Books

Marion Elizabeth Brown, a native of Ontario, worked in several Canadian libraries before she came to Smith in 1938 as an assistant cataloguer. During the 1941/42 academic year, she was given the task "to make a systematic search of the library for books which should be given special care" by librarian Mary Dunham. “These books, including fifteenth- and sixteenth-century items, formed the core of the present-day rare book collection.

Rare Books at Smith before 1940

Mary E. Dunham

Mary Dunham, Smith College Librarian from 1920-1942, had a great interest in rare books. On February 14, 1939, Dunham addressed an Alumnae Council session, describing the work of a college library. A press release for this event notes that she spoke of the numerous collections in the Smith College Library and “of the treasures to be found in the Rare Book room,” a space created in the 1937 addition to Neilson Library, which she oversaw.

Fall 2012 - Velma Garcia

Page last updated 08/18/12 el

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