Among Harvard's Libraries: Archibald Cary Coolidge and Carinthia The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Carpenter, Kenneth E. 1996. Among Harvard's Libraries: Archibald Cary Coolidge and Carinthia. Harvard Library Bulletin 6 (2), Summer 1995: 23-24. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42665389 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Among Harvard's Libraries 23 passing nature. It cannot be emphasized too eral collecting profile of a great university li- strongly that the Harvard collection goes well brary. beyond traditional Hebrew literature to cover In conclusion, the Harvard Catalog is a material that does not even touch directly complete, faithful record of the holdings of a upon Jewish studies, as long as it is in Hebrew. great collection. Its aim is to serve and to stimu- The Hebraica collections of other major uni- late scholarship. By grouping together by au- versities limit themselves to materials relating thor, place, subject large segments of related mainly to traditional, Rabbinic works. materials, the scholar is invited to partake of Harvard, by including secular works, becomes the delicacies of a Shulhan Arukh, that is, a set the first university that truly integrates its table. Using another metaphor, the catalog Hebraica collection into the University's gen- provides the building blocks; the researcher eral program. Jewish studies are no longer can use them as he or she wishes to create new segregated, and Hebrew language publica- knowledge, new learning, and new scholar- tions have become an integral part of the gen- ship. And as to the rest: go and study! ARCHIBALD CARY COOLIDGE THEUNIVERSITY LIBRARY / NON SIBISEO NOBIS AND CARINTHIA I SEDPATRIAE /MDCCCXXIX.The Latin trans- lates as "Not for himself but for us-the Kenneth E. Carpenter country." . We then went on up to the Widener Me- he grave of Archibald Cary Coolidge, morial Rooms, where the Austrian delegation T Director of the University Library from presented a plaque to the library in honor of 1910 to 1928, is marked by a simple tomb- Coolidge. The Governor of Carinthia read stone, but one in a row of Coolidge gravesites the following: in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. I know because I Figure 7 (opposite). Catalog of the was part of the Harvard contingent that on Ladies and gentlemen! Hebrew Collection of the Harvard September 19 accompanied a delegation from College Library (Munchen: Saur, Let me begin my statement on the oc- Austria to lay a wreath at the tomb. Among 1995):Portions of pages from the Author casion of this celebration by presenting those present from Austria were the Gover- Index, the Subject Index, and the Im- in a few words Carinthia, our native print Index. nor of the province of Carinthia, Christof land. Zernatto; the Deputy Governor, Karl-Heinz Carinthia is the southernmost state Grasser; and the Austrian Consul in New of the Republic of Austria, which York, Walter Greinert. Two uniformed mem- means it is situated right in the heart of bers of the Austrian armed forces, who actu- Europe. ally deposited the wreath and then stood at Carinthia has about two hundred attention, lent particular solemnity to the oc- lakes, of which the Warthersee is the casion. largest. The mountains and valleys form At the cemetery, the Governor ofCarinthia a wonderful landscape that is ideal tour- made remarks, and Barbara Graham, Associ- ist country, and the Carinthians are well ate Director of the University Library, re- known as a people who like to sing and sponded. welcome guests. Industries, trades, The group, which included James Engell, crafts, and agriculture also form essen- Professor of English and Comparative Litera- tial pillars of our way of life. ture; Charles Maier, Krupp Foundation Pro- Since ancient times the population fessor ofEuropean Studies and Director of the has alternated, being at various times Minda De Ginzburg Center for European predominantly Illyric-Venetian, Celtic, Studies; and Michael Olson, the West Euro- Roman, German, or Slavic. In the year pean Bibliographer in Widener with respon- 976, Carinthia became an independent sibility for selecting German materials, then duchy, which from the year 1350 was returned by bus and limousine to Cambridge connected with Austria. and Widener Library. First stop was the The long-lasting historical unity of Coolidge tablet that is in the wall on the right the population led to a certain cultural after entering the lobby. It has a side view of autonomy, and it is significant that in Coolidge in relief and the inscription: recent decades all areas of art have ARCHIBALDCARY COOLIDGE/ 1866-1928 / flourished, literature, as well as music, PROFESSOROF HISTORY/ AND / DIRECTOROF architecture, and painting. 24 HARVARD LIBRARY BULLETIN Carinthians are grateful to the tumultuous times between the wars, United States of America and to Presi- and during World War II itself, many dent Woodrow Wilson, as well as to his things that should not have been done experts at the Paris Peace Conference were. However, since 1955, when Aus- after World War I, for their role in tria regained her freedom, Carinthia has bringing about the plebiscite of Octo- achieved much in guaranteeing rights ber IO, 1920, seventy-five years ago. for her Slovene minority. We are especially grateful to Professor The people of Carinthia are grateful Archibald Cary Coolidge. to Professor Archibald Cary Coolidge After World War I and the collapse for his help in bringing about the plebi- of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the scite of October IO, 1920. newly established kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, that is, the first After the ceremony in the Widener Me- Yugoslovia, claimed all of the Slovenes morial Rooms, members of the Austrian dele- of southern Carinthia. The disposition gation entered the stacks and walked down to of the so-called Klagenfurt Basin, in- D West, the bottommost level where the Aus habited by a mixed German and class is shelved. There, they saw a consider- Slovene population, was consequently able number of books and periodicals about one of the territorial issues that the Carinthia. On the way out of the stacks, the Paris Peace Conference had to resolve. Deputy Governor commented, "I never ex- Much debate resulted in the plebi- pected to find here books about Carinthia." scite solution, which was due to Presi- I did, though, and that is why I was able to dent Wilson and especially to his volunteer to take the delegation into the experts Professor Coolidge and Lt. stacks. I knew the books would be there, be- Colonel Sherman Miles. The plebi- cause I knew that Archibald Cary Coolidge scite turned out to be favorable to Aus- would have seen to it. tria. The Karawanken mountains, Coolidge, back in the early years of this southern border of the old crown century, understood that Americans would help duchy ofCarinthia, became the border to shape events in places whose very names of the Austrian republic. were unfamiliar to all but a few of his fellow The southeastern part of the country, citizens. Through his teaching, through edit- the area where the plebiscite took place, ing Foreign Affairs-and through giving a contained a population that was about 70 worldwide scope to the Harvard Library-he percent Slovene in language. Yet, Aus- sought to insure that Americans would act on tria gained 59 percent of the total vote, the basis of knowledge. and of the 22,000 persons who voted to Although Coolidge bought 4,000 volumes join with Austria, ro,ooo were Slovene while in Austria, some of the books about speaking. By their own decision, they Carinthia were in the Widener stacks before became part of a German-speaking state. he left Cambridge on his mission. Perhaps the Although the treaties of Paris pro- history of Carinthia was even shaped by some vided for minority rights, in the of those books that are now on D West. The consortium, formed under the auspices TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN of the Media Laboratory of the Massachusetts PUBLISHING AND THE MEDIA: Institute ofTechnology, began life in February THE NEWS IN THE FUTURE PROGRAM of 1993. The members of the consortium are twenty-one media and technology companies Jerome S. Rubin from eight countries. The research projects JEROME S. RUBIN, who has re- research consortium has been formed to are led by seven MIT faculty members, as- cently joined Veronis, Suhler A explore the ways in which news may be sisted by about twenty graduate students, and & Associates Inc. as managing disseminated in the future. The program has I am chairman of the Program. director, continues to be chair- the somewhat ambiguous name of News in Before outlining some of the central con- man of the News in the Future the Future (NiF). cepts of the News in the Future research initia- tive, I would like to provide some background. program. This is a slightly revised version of an address given at the meeting of the Overseers' Committee to Visit the Library, In 1967, when this century still had one- 28 April 1995. third of the way to go, the American Academy .