DIRECTORY OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA LllRARIES COMPILED BY MARGARET A. HOWELL SPECIAL COLLECTIONS UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA LIBRARIES COLUMBIA, MISSOURI 2001 CONTENTS Introduction 1 Rare Book Collection 3 University of Missouri Collection 7 Comic Art Collection 9 Frank Luther Mott Collection of Early American Best Sellers 10 Weinberg Journalists in Fiction Collection 11 William H. Peden Short Story Collection 12 John G. Neihardt Collection 13 Historic Textbook Collection 15 Mary Lago Collection 16 Thomas Moore Johnson Collection of Philosophy 18 Closed Collection 19 Playbill Collection 20 Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Missouri Collection 21 War Poster Collection 23 Columbia Missourian Newspaper Library 24 Donald Silver, M.D., Rare Book Room 25 University Archives 27 INTRODUCTION pecial Collections in the MU Libraries are almost as old as the Libraries them­ Sselves. The genesis of the present-day Special Collections Division began with a small collection of rare books housed in the office of the Director of Libraries. Since then the Rare Book Collection in Ellis Library has grown both by design and through donations, and the Health Science Library's Rare Book Collection has de­ veloped similarly. ift collections of philosophy books, short stories, early American best sellers, G and early elementary and secondary textbooks have enriched the holdings of Special Collections. The Comic Art Collection also contains numerous important gifts that complement and enhance purchased titles. The University of Missouri Collection contains published works by and about the University and its faculty, while the University Archives maintain the University'S official records and publi­ cations. Finally, the Columbia Missourian Newspaper Library's unique focus is to serve as a community resource in addition to its primary mission to aid the Missou­ rian staff. he MU Libraries are eager to share their wealth of knowledge with others. The T staff responsible for each of the collections will be happy to answer questions about holdings and will arrange to duplicate items when conditions and copyrights permit. The collections are administered by four separate units of the Libraries: Special Collections in Ellis Library, the Journalism Library, the Health Sciences Library, and the University Archives. Descriptions of each collection are linked to the MU Libraries' web address (http://web.missouri.eduJ-elliswww/index.html), but additional contact information and direct links to individual library units are given below. Special Collections Donald Silver, M.D., Rare Book Room 401 Ellis Library 301 J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library (573) 882-0076 (573) 882-7033 http://mulibraries.missouri.edulspec http://www.muhealth.org/-library Columbia Missourian Newspaper Library University Archives 315 Lee Hills Hall 726 Lewis Hall (573) 882-4876 (573) 882-7567 http://missouri.edul-jIibrwww http://www.system.missouri.edularchives 1 Paccioli, Luca. Diuina Proportione. Venetiis: Alessandro and Poganino de' Paganini, 1509. 2 ELLIS LIBRARY. SPECIAL COLLECTIONS RARE BOOK COLLECTION istory: The Rare Book Collection evolved from a small collection of rare H books housed in the Director of Libraries' office to a closed shelf collection administered by the Language and Literature Library. It ultimately became the primary collection of the Special Materials Department when it was formed in 1962 (renamed Special Collections in 1977). cope: The Rare Book Collection is diverse. Holdings span the eighth to the Stwentieth centuries and include early manuscripts and manuscript fragments, printed books, periodicals, pamphlets, and broadsides. The collection contains im­ portant first editions of classical authors and authors of world importance, limited editions, association copies, and autographed copies in addition to works deemed rare by virtue of age. Additionally, the collection is strong in some specific genres and subjects: History of Printing and the Book Arts Researchers will find a small collection of incunabula including a splendid copy of Hartmann Schedel's Liber Chronicarum (1493); numerous sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth century titles from impor­ tant printers; and examples from hundreds of private presses such as the fine press movement, Kelmscott, Doves, and Ashendene, and contemporary presses Bird and Bull, Chelonondiae, Janus, and others. Also available are more than 300 examples from the Limited Editions Club, which were gifts from Dr. and Mrs. Fred W. Billerbeck and William J. Kerr. Notable examples from the Limited Editions Club are Aristophanes' Lysistrata, illustrated by Pablo Picasso (1934), James Joyce's Ulysses, illustrated by Henri Matisse (1935), and Octavio Paz's Three Poems, illus­ trated with Robert Motherwell's lithographs (1987). English Political and Religious Historv The Rare Book Collection houses a large collection of seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth century English tracts, some­ times referred to as the Howey Collection. They are especially rich in works about English religious life and controversies. For example, more than 200 deal with the Popish Plot of 1678. Anonymous pamphlets on a variety of political topics now attributed to Daniel Defoe are also available. Of special interest locally are the sermons and related works associated with St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury, a 3 Schedel, Hartmann. Liber Chronicarum. Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493. 4 church designed by Christopher Wren that was moved from London to Fulton, Mis­ souri, in the 1960s. Dance of Death Portrayals of Death encountering people from all walks of life have appeared on church and cemetery wall-paintings, in the decorations of ecclesi­ astical architecture, and in illustrated manuscripts and books. The Libraries have collected printed works in the three main traditions of the Dance: editions of Hans Holbein's woodcuts and his engraved, etched, and lithographed prints; editions that reproduce the Wall-paintings at Basel; and eighteenth to twentieth century varia­ tions on the theme. The earliest Holbein edition in the collection is leones Mortis (1547), which contains fifty-three illustrations. Others are Abraham a Sancta Clara's De Kapelle der Dooden (1764), William Combe's The English Dance of Death (1815-1816), Alfred Kubin's Die Blatter mit dem Tod (1918), and Frans Masereel's Danse Macabre (1946). Emblem Books The joining of words and pictorial images to convey moral and ethical truths in emblematic form was a popular allegorical mode of expression in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1522 Andreas Alciati wrote a book of epigrams called Emblemata. Appropriate images were added to Alciati's verses to accompany the text. Emblemata became a model for this genre of books, and the emblem book became a mode of literary and artistic expression. The Rare Book Collection contains a number of editions of Alciati plus works by Paolo Giovio, Philip Ayres, Joachim Camerarius, Herman Hugo, Jan Luiken, Francis Quarles, Cesare Ripa, Otto Van Veen, and George Wither. Ovid's Metamorphoses The Metamorphoses is the most substantial and influential work by the Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C.-A.D. 17). An epic poem which tells of miraculous changes, Metamorphoses begins with the transformation of the world from chaos to order, progresses through numerous Roman mythological themes, and finally concludes with the death of Julius Caesar. Highlights of this collection of illustrated editions of Metamorphoses are Clement Marot's edition containing Bernard Salomon's woodcuts, Les Oevvres (1549); Gabriel Giolito's printing of Lodovico Dolce's translation, Le Transformationi (1557); and one of the finest Ger­ man editions illustrated with 178 woodcuts by Virgil Solis, Tetrasticha in Ovidii Metamorphoses (1569). One illustrated manuscript edition is also in the collection. Herbals From very early times plants have been used as healing agents. Compila­ tions of medical information drawn from tradition and from the manuscript works of Pliny, Dioscorides, and others became known as herbals. The descriptions of the plants and illustrations by which the plants could be recognized were important elements of these works. By the sixteenth century the illustrations had evolved from crude drawings to detailed works modelled from life and reproduced by wood­ cuts and engravings. The Rare Book Collection contains one of the most celebrated herbals ever printed, Leonhart Fuchs' De Historia Stirpium (1542). Also available are Hortus Sanitatis (1517); Pier Andrea Mattioli's Commentarij in VI. Libros P edacij 5 Dioscordis Anazarbei de Medica Materia (1583); Antoine Laurent de Jussieu's Genera Plantarum (1789), which with Linnaeus' work formed the basis of modem natural classification of plants; and numerous other beautifully illustrated botani­ cal works. The Rare Book Collection is further strong in Dada and Surrealist literature as well as books of trades and street cries. Seventeenth century book collector John Bagford's manuscript leaves and fragments, Fragmenta Manuscripta, dating from the eighth to the seventeenth century, offer scholars examples of book hands, decorations, and texts. Most notable are a fragment from Chaucer's translation of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy, Bede's De Orthographia, and manuscript leaves from the atelier of Geofroy Tory. Holdings: 35,000 volumes. ccess: With a few exceptions, the collection is cataloged and can be accessed A through MERLIN, the online catalog of the University of Missouri. Addi­ tional