Darlington's Library

Born in 1815, William Darlington spent most of his life pursuing his own avid curiosity about the world. He collected maps of emerging territories; letters written by the nation’s first president, George Washington; rare religious manuscripts; and more. Today, much of his personal library is part of the University Library System’s Special Collections department, where surprises abound. n the summer of 1886, the elderly attorney, leaning on his walking stick, entered into the sunny, oblong room, the brightest space in his manse in the woods. He turned to gaze out the three large bay windows. Looking south, through the veranda doors, he saw the lilies of the valley running free in the fields, the rolling Allegheny River and, Written by in the distance, the green knolls of what is now Highland Park. Ervin Dyer But, in this library, his attention soon shifted to the forest of more than 14,000 books, magazines, manuscripts, and maps that filled the walls at Guyasuta, his Photography courtesy of breezy estate named for a Seneca leader and scout to George the University Washington. Here, the genial lawyer indulged his vast curiosity Library System’s Department of about botany, geography, politics, natural science, religion, Special Collections. democracy, and—of course—history. For William Darlington, history was magic, an immersion into a wondrous search of the human soul. This magic produced his passion for books that documented the opening up of the great Western frontier. He wrote and published on the native American Indians, gathering stories on their rituals, histories of wars, and captives, often using the language of the “red race” to describe their world. What he amassed on the early stories of the unfolding of a growing nation are unparalleled: His collectionI contains bound volumes of his own notes and research on such topics as the Ohio Company, an English land speculation company; Forts Pitt, Duquesne, Shippen, and Kittanning; the Allegheny River; and the city of Pittsburgh. He collected as if consumed by a fever. He gathered some of George Washington’s Above: William Darlington, c. 1886. Right: A hand-colored personal papers. It wasn’t enough. He harvested letters penned by political, military, lithograph of Jack-O-Pa, a Chippewa chief, is from the History of the and literary figures such as Colonel Henry Bouquet, General Cornwallis, Alexander Indian Tribes of North America, Hamilton, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, and Hugh Henry Brackenridge, the founder dated between 1837 and 1844. of the University of Pittsburgh. MAGAZINE ITT P 34 Something Special Spring 2011 Spring 2011 Something Special 35 is passion spilled over a protective glove before showing to include poetry, lit- a visitor Darlington’s fragile col- erature, and English, lection of letters from George Spanish, and Irish Washington. “We want classes to ballads. He owned come. We want students to use a Geneva Bible, a our stations. We work with pro- Hsacred text a half-century older than the fessors who can build lectures St. James Bible. William Shakespeare, around what we have here. This John Milton and John Donne all read is a teaching collection.” the Geneva Bible, and it was one of the Of course it is, and the Bibles that crossed the water with the lessons that can flow from Pilgrims. Also in the collection: A num- here are endless. The mass of ber of travel books more than 200 years materials on hand meanders Top: Pitt’s Special old detailing voyages from the North through the worlds of music, Collections contains Cape to the polar seas. art, and drama: The Fidelis many of the personal Zitterbart Collection, given records of Mary Roberts Today, this rare trove of mate- Rinehart, a Pittsburgh rial—The Darlington Memorial Library to the University in 1960, native and noted mystery Collection—belongs to the University of contains nearly 1,500 manu- writer. Pittsburgh, where it is a crown jewel in script compositions from a Center: The inaugural the library system’s Special Collections man who was a contemporary program of the first Department. of the great American music maestro performance at Pittsburgh’s Stanley Like many of its counterparts Stephen Foster. The atrocity of war is Theater, now the across the nation, Special Collections evident in 143 photographic images from Benedum Center for Although the collections are kept the Associated Press and the Graphic Performing Arts. is a repository for rare books, age-old manuscripts, and one-of-a-kind materi- at various storage and preservation sites, Photo Union showing the devastation als that are bequeathed to, gifted to, or the Special Collections Room, located on of London during WWII bombings by purchased for the University of Pitts- the third floor of the Hillman Library, Hitler’s air force. An endowment sup- burgh. Together, the collections—which offers a quiet visitors’ hub with a genteel, ports the Ford E. and Harriet R. Curtis are kept in several locations within the built-in hush. A soothing amber glow Theatre Collection. This collection has library system—are a treasure of more welcomes bibliophiles, scholars, and the more than 500,000 theater programs, than 52,000 physical volumes, 560 linear plain-ol’ curious. Because of their rare including a facsimile of the Ford’s The- feet of manuscripts and archives, 13,000 and unique nature, these collections are atre playbill from the night of President photographs, 500,000 theater programs, noncirculating and, traditionally, must be Lincoln’s assassination, dozens of his- and various slides, microfilms, posters, visited for access. Now, though, many of tories and items from Pittsburgh’s local recordings, ephemera, and memorabilia the collections are being digitized, offer- theaters, and reels of Fred Kelly (A&S documenting both personal zeal and ing open access to their mysteries via ’28), the son of East Liberty and older public life. the Internet. The Darlington Collection, brother of Gene Kelly (A&S ’33), act- for instance, can be visited at ing in a few University productions. Of Top: An illustration of http://darlington.library.pitt.edu. note, too, are the Archives of Scientific the wood-engraving One of the oldest items in the Pitt Philosophy. This storehouse of books of the King of Hearts collection is a leaf from the letters of St. and lecture notes includes the scholarly in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Jerome that dates to 1466, so preserva- papers of influential philosophers like Wonderland from a tion is often the first rule of business. Hans Reichenbach and Rudolf Carnap, limited Sesquicentennial When possible, some materials are con- Edition. The original including correspondence they shared work was first served, rebound, or boxed, then kept in with other modern thinkers instrumental published in 1865. the Special Collections room, protected in advancing quantum mechanics; space, Right: An example from against the devils of dust, humidity, and time and relativity theory; and theories a collection of vintage harmful light. All of the care adds a in the logic of math. photos showing the dev- white-glove tenor to this place, a sense of Other charms shine all around astation of London after bombings by Hitler’s air the sacred in the safeguarding of fragile these collections, neatly tucked away and force during WWII. items. There is warmth here, too. It is precisely catalogued among the tem- stoked by the attentive staff of librar- perature-controlled stacks: Poetry and ians, historians, and preservationists, who pamphlets on Cooperative movements, agree this space is a not a museum but rare editions of texts by iconic authors, rather a living, welcoming “open house.” Brazilian literature and the biography “We want the public here,” says and personal papers of Pittsburgh native Jeanann Croft Haas, head of Special Col- daughter and noted mystery writer Mary MAGAZINE lections and Preservation, as she snaps on ITT P 36 ‘s One of the oldest items in the Pitt collection is a leaf from the letters of St. Jerome that dates to 1466, so preservation is often the first rule of business. When possible, some materials are conserved, rebound, or boxed, then kept in the Special Collections room, protected against the devils of dust, humidity, and harmful light. Roberts Rinehart. First editions of noted Spanish author Ramon Gomez de la Serna and a schoolbook collection with texts as old as the Spanish Conquest. Far left: Newspaper broadsides were But, perhaps, nothing shines an extensive part of brighter than that rarest of gems in the Darlington’s library, including this article, Darlington collection. It’s the John James which details the 1799 Audubon 19th-century masterwork, The funeral procession for Birds of America, another copy of which U.S. President George Washington. recently sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $10 million. Audubon was a dashing Left: A facsimile of the self-taught naturalist who dreamed of Ford’s Theatre program from the night cataloguing and painting all the birds that President Lincoln of North America. He was born in was assassinated. Haiti and spent time as a young man in Below: This geisha the woods of Pennsylvania, near Val- was chosen by local ley Forge. He called the place paradise. judges in Japan as a “Tokyo Beauty.” The The hunting and fishing there fueled his hand-painted photo- frenzy for the creation of The Birds of graph, from a set of America, which became one of the larg- vintage Japanese texts, is 100 years old. est—and rarest—books in the world, a work that rivals the importance of the Gutenberg Bible. William Darlington, too, had his own frenzy with botany. And when the serious lawyer with the dark arch of eye- brows paid $400 for the four oversized, bound volumes in 1852, he must have been astounded.

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