Sender: Rare book and manuscripts <EXLIBRIS-L@LISTSERV.INDIANA.EDU>
THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM RECEIVES MAJOR GRANT FROM THE LEON LEVY FOUNDATION FOR CATALOGING OF LITERARY AND HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS
The Morgan Library & Museum announced today that it has received a grant of $450,000 from the Leon Levy Foundation for a three-year project to upgrade catalog records for its renowned collection of literary and historical manuscripts.
The Morgan?s holdings range from love letters of Voltaire to diaries of Henry David Thoreau to lyric sheets by Bob Dylan. This grant will facilitate greater access to these documents via the institution?s online public catalog, CORSAIR.
?The Leon Levy Foundation has made an extraordinary gift to scholarship and public enjoyment of the Morgan?s rich resources,? said Charles E. Pierce, Jr., director of the Morgan. ?Accurate collection information is the foundation of all that we do-from providing scholarly access to mounting public exhibitions. Every major improvement we make to our online catalog results in the use of the Morgan?s collections in new and unexpected ways.?
?The Morgan Library & Museum is a national treasure, housing such historic manuscripts as a volume of Edward Gibbon?s diary,? said Shelby White, trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation. ?His work, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, inspired my husband?s interest in history and antiquities. The Leon Levy Foundation is pleased to play a major role in enhancing the Morgan?s catalog records.?
As a result of the grant, the Morgan will hire a team of project catalogers to examine targeted areas of the collection to ensure that items are described fully and accurately in CORSAIR. Though most of the Morgan?s collections are represented in the catalog, in some cases the entries have not been revisited in many decades.
The grant will also enable the Morgan to examine undocumented materials and graphic items-such as individual letters of major authors and portraits and photographs-and make certain they are properly cataloged. Moreover, it will allow for the upgrading of tools used for the physical tracking of collection items, an essential part of responsible collection management.
The Morgan?s outstanding collection of literary and historical manuscripts is consulted by researchers, including biographers, editors, historians, filmmakers, and graduate students. In addition to the scholarly access provided through the Morgan?s Reading Room, the collections are made available to the public through a wide array of public exhibitions, lectures, and other programs.
THE LITERARY AND HISTORICAL MANUSCRIPTS COLLECTION
In range and quality, the Morgan?s literary and historical manuscripts are among the finest of their kind and include those of major works, such as Milton?s Paradise Lost, Locke?s Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Saint-Exupéry?s Le Petit Prince, and Dickens?s Christmas Carol as well as large groups of correspondence of writers, such as Voltaire, Byron, Ruskin, and Austen. The strong American holdings include journals of Hawthorne, Thoreau, and Steinbeck and significant historical correspondence, such as a series of letters from Jefferson to his daughter Martha. A fine collection of artists? manuscripts ranges from Renaissance letters of Alberti and Vasari to a diary of the modernist American painter and printmaker Stuart Davis. In recent years, with the acquisition of the records of the Pierre Matisse Gallery and The Paris Review, the Carter Burden Collection of American Literature, and manuscripts of Bob Dylan and others, the collection has grown to include important twentieth-century materials.
These unique and significant materials are essential primary documents that preserve the history of intellectual, artistic, and political activity in Western Europe and the United States over the past several centuries. With fine examples from a wide range of periods and creative traditions, the collection illustrates the many ways people take pen to paper to further their own reflections, communicate information, and compose written works. From private notes to heavily revised drafts to works on the verge of publication, these materials provide insight into the working methods of their creators.
CORSAIR
The Morgan Library & Museum launched CORSAIR, its online public catalog, internally in 1999 and on the Web in 2002, at http://corsair.themorgan.org. Later this year, the Morgan?s catalog records will also become available via WorldCat (http://www.worldcat.org/), the world?s most comprehensive database of information about library collections.
CORSAIR -named after Pierpont Morgan?s yacht-enables researchers to search freely, remotely, and creatively to learn about the Morgan?s holdings in advance of contacting or visiting the campus. The database currently contains approximately 270,000 catalog records describing medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, rare and reference books, literary and historical manuscripts, music scores, ancient seals and tablets, drawings, prints, and other art objects.
With the database infrastructure in place and the majority of collection items now described in the catalog, the Morgan?s efforts are currently centered on enhancing and improving available collection information. The grant from the Leon Levy Foundation will allow just such a major advance in catalog enhancement.
THE LEON LEVY FOUNDATION
The Leon Levy Foundation, founded in 2004, is a private, not-for-profit foundation created from the estate of Leon Levy, a legendary investor with a longstanding commitment to philanthropy. The Foundation?s overarching goal is to continue the tradition of humanism characteristic of Mr. Levy, by supporting scholarship at the highest level, ultimately advancing knowledge and improving the lives of individuals and society at large.
THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM
A complex of buildings in the heart of New York City, The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, one of the preeminent collectors and cultural benefactors in the United States. Today it is a museum, independent research library, musical venue, architectural landmark, and historic site. Nearly a century after its founding, the Morgan maintains a unique position in the cultural life of New York City and is considered one of its greatest treasures. With the 2006 reopening of its newly renovated campus, designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, the Morgan reaffirmed its role as an important repository for the history, art, and literature of Western civilization from 4000 B.C. to the twenty-first century.
GENERAL INFORMATION
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue, at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016-3405
212.685.0008
www.themorgan.org
HOURS
Tuesday-Thursday, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; extended Friday hours, 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Monday, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year?s Day. The Morgan closes at 4 p.m. on Christmas Eve and New Year?s Eve.
ADMISSION
$12 for adults; $8 for students, seniors (65 and over) and children (under 16); free to Members and children 12 and under accompanied by an adult. Admission is free on Fridays from 7 to 9 p.m. Admission to the McKim rooms is without charge during the following times: Tuesday, 3 to 5 p.m.; Friday, 7 to 9 p.m.; Sunday, 4 to 6 p.m. Admission is not required to visit the Morgan Shop.
Declan Kiely
Robert H. Taylor Curator and Department Head
Literary and Historical Manuscripts
The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10016-3405
Phone: 212 590 0358
Fax: 212 768 5658
NET: dkiely@themorgan.org
WEB: www.themorgan.org
Visit CORSAIR, the Library?s comprehensive collections catalog, now on
the web at
http://corsair.morganlibrary.org