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

INTRO

1967 Vietnam Moratorium gathering
1967 Vietnam Moratorium silent gathering in front of Miller Library. The late 60s and early 70s were a time of protest and change.

THE CURRENT SCOPE OF OUR SITE focuses on the history of Colby’s collecting of rare books and literary manuscripts from 1935 through 1975 – in essence, the formative years of our Special Collections. After 1975, there was a marked shift in both operations and collecting philosophy:

  • By the mid-1970s, the Colby Library Associates – established in 1935 as a significant resource for developing library collections – faced diminished membership and activity.
  • Special Collections was directed by English faculty curators until 1975, after which supervision was transferred to librarian curators.
  • The librarian curators aligned Special Collections operations with those of Miller Library, strengthened ties between the collections and the college curriculum and embraced the college archives.
  • And, lastly, 1975 marks the embittered death of major benefactor James Augustine Healy and the college’s late-in-coming attention to the extensive Healy Collection.

A BIT MORE ON COLBIANA

The Colbiana (college archives) Collection was first given its first, rudimentary attention in the 1930s. However, the Colbiana Collection was held separate, conceptually, from Special Collections until the 1976 integration.

That said, Colbiana threads were naturally sewn into the Special Collections tapestry early on, through Colby history-related donations and through people featured in this site: librarians, other Colby people and donors.

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

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