![]() ![]() ![]() The commission given Gray did not represent all the activities of the Regents in regard to the Library, for in 1838 they ordered a copy of Rafn's Antiquitates Americanae, and in 1839 they paid $970 for a copy of Audubon's Birds of America, which is still in the University collections. The list of books bought, which was printed as a state document ( Joint Doc.) in 1841, has been compared with the catalogues, and most of the books have survived a century of active use and are still in the Library. Asa Gray, Professor of Botany in the University of Michigan, in his contemplated tour in Europe be requested to purchase a library for the University of Michigan, that the sum of five thousand dollars be appropriated and placed in his hands to carry that object into effect, … and that fifteen hundred dollars be advanced to Doctor Gray for defraying the expenses which he may incur in the execution of the commission hereby confided to him.įurther resolutions specified the classes of books to be purchased and requested Gray "to embody his observations of a scientific, literary, and philosophical character … in the form of a report, to be laid before the Board of Regents on his return home."Īs a result of this commission Gray, through George Palmer Putnam, * purchased 3,400 volumes "embracing the various departments of history, philosophy, classical literature, sciences and arts, (and) jurisprudence, …" The Regents' committee on the Library reported that a large proportion of these books consisted of works which could not be obtained in America, while many of the editions were scarce and rare in Europe. Asa Gray, who had been appointed Professor of Botany and who had asked for a year abroad prior to taking up his teaching duties, to buy books: During the next eleven years the librarian's duties were assumed for brief periods by various members of the faculty.Ī year after Colclazer's appointment the Regents passed a resolution commissioning Dr. He held his office, which must have been a sinecure, until 1845. Although no money was forthcoming from this source for the Library the Regents in 1837 "elected" the Reverend Henry Colclazer to the position of librarian ( R.P., 1837-64, p. ![]() ![]() In the Act of 1837, which provided for the organization of the University in Ann Arbor, it was stipulated that as much as was necessary of the moneys received from student fees should be expended in keeping the buildings in good condition the balance was to be used for the increase of the Library. The Reverend John Monteith, President of the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania, mentions in his diary that a part of the little University building erected in Detroit in 1817 was occupied by a Detroit library. THE history of the General Library of the University of Michigan begins almost with that of the University itself. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |