History of Special Collections @ Colby

  • INTRO
    • Goals
    • Student Scholars Wanted
    • Acknowledgments
    • Contact Us
  • CHRONOLOGY & CONTEXT
    • What Happened (early on)
      • The First Library & Edward Hall
      • The “Rare Book” Section (early 1930s)
    • Our Chronology (1935-1975)
    • Some Context
  • THE PEOPLE
    • Curators
      • Carl Jefferson Weber (Curator 1940-1958)
      • Richard Cary (Curator 1958-1975)
    • Librarians
      • N Orwin Rush (Librarian 1936-1945)
      • Gilmore Warner (Librarian 1945-1947)
      • James Humphry III (Librarian 1947-1957)
      • John R McKenna (Librarian 1957-1964)
      • Kenneth P Blake, Jr (Librarian 1964-1973)
      • Eileen M Curran (Acting Librarian, 1973-1976)
    • Other Colby People
      • Ernest C Marriner ’13
      • Frederick A Pottle ’17
      • Carroll A Wilson ’40 LLD
      • Franklin Winslow Johnson (President 1929-1942)
      • Julius Seelye Bixler (President 1942-1960)
      • Robert Edward Lee Strider II (President 1960-1979)
    • The Colby Library Associates
    • Highlighted Donors
  • HIGHLIGHTED COLLECTIONS
    • Rare Book Collections
      • Early Books
      • Thomas Hardy
      • Book Arts
      • The Rubáiyát
    • Personal Libraries
      • Library of Edwin Arlington Robinson
      • Library of Thomas Sergeant Perry
      • Library of Harold Trowbridge Pulsifer
      • Library of James Augustine Healy
      • Library of Ben Ames Williams
    • Manuscript Collections
    • “A Recent Accession”: The Colby Library Quarterly

The “Rare Book” Section (early 1930s)

Reading Room-old library - Memorial Hall
The reading room in Colby’s first library (old campus) served as an exhibit space in the late 1930s-early 1940s. The librarians used the space to highlight notable items in the library collection as well as traveling exhibits and photographs from Colby’s Camera Club.

Small-to-significant donations to the Library’s holdings continued into the 1920s and 1930s, received from alumni/ae, faculty and other supporters. However, identification and special care for particular items was not a priority until the arrival of Robert Bingham Downs, the first professionally-trained librarian at Colby (1929-1931). He effected many improvements including attention to the Library’s rare books.

Downs began transfer of rare and valuable books, especially Americana, from the circulating collection. This practice was continued by Downs’ successors, Joseph Selwyn Ibbotson (1931-1935) and J. Periam Danton (1935-1936), who denoted a formal “rare book” section.

English Professor Carl Weber‘s academic interest in the works of Thomas Hardy resulted in more Hardy acquisitions by the library. They would become the nucleus of Colby’s renowned Thomas Hardy Collection.

 

Explore Common Threads – and Student Scholarship – in our Manuscript Collections

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