College and Research Libraries B y J A N E C. B A H N S E N Collections in the University of North Carolina Library Before 1830 AS T U D Y H A S recently been made of the earliest holdings of the Univer- sity of N o r t h C a r o l i n a L i b r a r y and a survey taken of the volumes surviving a f t e r at least 1 3 0 intervening years. Cat- alogs and other records dated before 1830 were the guides to hundreds of the originally listed copies and to replace- ments of hundreds more. O n December 5, 1792, the beginning of the University of N o r t h C a r o l i n a Li- brary was recorded at a meeting of the B o a r d of Trustees: " A book entitled 'the works of the right revered father in G o d T h o m a s Wilson D.D. L o r d Bishop of Sodor and M a n ' was presented to the board by the Honle. J o h n Sitgreaves Esqr. agreeably to a resolution of the Congress of the U n i t e d States passed M a r c h 22nd 1 7 8 5 which was accepted." 1 T h e book h a d previously been deposited f o r safekeeping in the library of the N e w B e r n A c a d e m y to await the opening of the university, and perhaps the trustees never reclaimed it, f o r no mention of it occurs in lists of university holdings a few years later, but almost 2,300 of the volumes to come to C h a p e l H i l l d u r i n g the next thirty-seven years have been identified in the library's present collec- tion. A representative portion of them, in well preserved leather bindings a n d bearing the original bookplates, have been brought together to f o r m a special 1 Minutes of the Board of Trustees, Dec. 5, 1792, in the University of North Carolina Archives, Southern Historical Collection. Miss Bahnsen is Assistant Librarian of the North Carolina Collection, Univer- sity of North Carolina Library. unit in the N o r t h C a r o l i n a Collection of the University of N o r t h C a r o l i n a L i - brary, carrying out a suggestion of Miss M a r y L . T h o r n t o n , l i b r a r i a n of the N o r t h C a r o l i n a Collection until her re- tirement on J u n e 30, 1958. T h e volumes sought f o r this " O l d L i b r a r y " representation h a d belonged in the early days to three separate col- lections. Administrative officials of the university fostered the first of these, de- pending on appropriations f r o m the trustees, fees collected f r o m the students, and gifts, which by 1797 had accounted f o r 1 3 3 volumes. T w o student organiza- tions, formed in 1796, began at once to b u i l d their own libraries. T h e Dialectic and the Philanthropic Societies, " w i l l i n g to cultivate lasting F r i e n d s h i p . . . and to promote useful K n o w l e d g e , " 2 counted most of the student body among their members, dominated student life, a n d f o r many years supplied the chief extra- curricular activities. T h e i r weekly pro- grams consisted of recitations of passages f r o m literature, readings of original com- positions, and debates on subjects rang- ing f r o m the political and sociological to the moral and philosophical. T h e i r books were both the source of their in- spiration and the material expression of their intellectual pride. T h e societies thrived on competition w i t h each other: A n d what is told of one library may be told of the other, for they were as much alike as the teeth of the upper and the lower jaw, and as often came into colli- 2 Minutes of the Dialectic Society, 1798-1804, in the University of North Carolina Archives, Southern His- torical Collection. MARCH 1959 125 sion. W h e n one library got a book the other must have the same book, only more handsomely bound, if possible.3 T h e societies' collections, financed by membership dues and augmented by gifts, soon surpassed the university li- brary in quantity and quality as they made its needs less acutely felt.4 T h e y belong, their independence notwith- standing, in the search f o r the origins of today's library because in 1886 they were absorbed by the university library, whose bookplates have ever since carried the phrase " E n d o w e d by the Dialectic and P h i l a n t h r o p i c Societies." A s bases of the search f o r the original volumes, The Catalogue of the Dialectic Society Library and The Catalogue of the Philanthropic Society Library, print- ed at C h a p e l H i l l in 1829 and 1827, re- spectively, were chosen because they ap- peared in close succession at a relatively early date. Since no list of the same pe- riod exists f o r the university library, one appearing in the December 7, 1802 issue of the R a l e i g h Minerva has been used. Comparisons make it apparent that the society libraries largely paralleled the university collection, and it is unlikely that a catalog of university library books, had one been compiled in the 1820's, w o u l d have added m a n y titles to the combined lists mentioned above. The Dialectic Society Catalogue includes 934 titles, or 2,680 volumes; The Philan- thropic Society Catalogue, 7 5 3 titles, or 2,485 volumes; and the Minerva, 108 titles, or 340 volumes, as well as the col- lective entries: " 1 7 4 volumes chiefly in the French l a n g u a g e " and " H o r a c e , Vir- gil, Sallust, Greek T e s t a m e n t , and other School B o o k s . " A l l o w i n g f o r titles occur- ring in more than one of these lists, there 3 W i l l i a m H o o p e r , Fifty Years Since ( R a l e i g h : H o l d e n and W i l s o n , 1 8 5 9 ) , p. 13. * Each society library held about 3,000 v o l u m e s in 1835, and the university reported 1,900 volumes in 1836 — K e m p P. Battle, History of the University of North Carolina ( R a l e i g h : Printed f o r the author by E d w a r d s & Broughton P r i n t i n g C o . , 1907-12), I , pp. 408, 410. is a total of 1 , 1 1 2 separate works, con- sisting of more than 5,000 volumes. T h e i n f o r m a t i o n about each book was entered in a card file in the brief form, usually the binder's title, in which it appeared in one or more of the three lists, the number of volumes, and, in the case of gifts, the donor's name. F o r books f r o m the Dialectic Society, an additional clue lay in that catalog's arrangement of titles in classifications of history, biog- raphy, " e p i s t o l a r y , " etc. T h e name of the library or libraries which held copies was indicated on each card. Checking the file against today's card catalog showed many of the titles still to be in the library. F o r these, f u l l author and title entries were recorded, together with the call n u m b e r if publication predated 1830. Sometimes more than one modern entry appeared to fit the original speci- fications as to title, date, and n u m b e r of volumes, and in such cases all possibili- ties were noted. N o effort was made to find more than one copy or one edition of any title. O f t e n the brevity and content of the original listing made identification through the card catalog difficult or im- possible. T h e relationship between early and modern entries may be deeply con- cealed. T h e title listed as "Amherst's Embassy," f o r example, was f o u n d to be Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China . . ., by Sir H e n r y Ellis. "Nature and Art" is the old entry f o r Wonders of Nature and Art, by T h o m a s Smith. A work of fiction is sometimes listed under its subtitle. M a n y entries are too vague ever to be identified, such as "Anecdotes, 1 v o l . " or "French Rev- olution, 1 v o l . " "Orsna's Expedition" (The Expedition of Or sua, by R o b e r t Southey) is an e x a m p l e of either mis- spelling or typographical error, while A d a m f o r A d a m s and S u l l i v a n f o r Suli- van are misleading inaccuracies. Fortu- nately, a little experience in the stacks soon made it possible to spot the leather 126 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES- bindings of about the proper age, and the lettering on the spine was an imme- diate clue to identification; b u t it is im- possible to know how many rebound volumes could not be f o u n d in this man- ner. M o r e than 900 of the volumes (repre- senting 380 titles), in good condition and in their original bindings, with book- plates or inscriptions indicating the col- lections with which they had been listed, were w i t h d r a w n f r o m the stacks to f o r m the special O l d L i b r a r y collection. C a l l numbers, date-due slips, and other marks of modern processing were removed. A l l but the earliest bookplates were taken o u t — a n d sometimes five or six had been pasted on top of one another. Loose bindings and pages were made secure and the leather was oiled. A f t e r the cat- aloging had been revised, small g u m m e d labels with new call numbers were placed on the front covers where they w o u l d be out of sight when the books were shelved, and bookplates of the N o r t h C a r o l i n a Collection were pasted inside the back covers. T h i s was consid- ered sufficient marking f o r volumes to be vised only in the building. T h e books were placed on open shelves in rooms furnished in eighteenth-century style a d j o i n i n g the reading room of the N o r t h C a r o l i n a Collection. T h e y are available f o r use there or in carrels. A separate shelf list records, in addition to f u l l cat- alog data, the entries used in the pre- 1830 lists, the name of the libraries which held copies, and all i n f o r m a t i o n given on the first bookplates. T h e books chosen to be shelved to- gether in this special collection present a picture of the physical nature of the 1830 library resources available in Chap- el H i l l . T h e original bindings are in- variably leather, mostly in shades of brown, but occasionally black, and often with attractive yellow, green, red, or black labels. A few marbled lining- papers appear. Most of the imprints are of contemporary dates and are predom- inantly A m e r i c a n a n d English (and there are somewhat more of the Amer- ican than of the English). A few of the A m e r i c a n imprints, usually on theolog- ical subjects, carry subscription lists. Novels are, almost without exception, less than nineteen centimeters in height and in two or three volumes. P a p e r a n d typography are generally of good qual- ity. M o r e than 1,400 other volumes (280 titles), named in the early lists and iden- tified by their bookplates as pre-1830 holdings, remain in the m a i n stacks, the rare book room, and the departmental libraries. Call numbers, complete en- tries, and bookplate evidence were re- corded in the card file used f o r the search, but the books were not added to the O l d L i b r a r y collection because they are needed in their present location or because they lack their original bind- ings. I n addition to these, about 2,000 volumes (82 titles), named in the early lists and published before 1830, are in the library today but came f r o m sources other than the pre-1830 collections, o r show no evidence of h a v i n g been in the library at that time. U n d o u b t e d l y some are the original copies w i t h b i n d i n g s and bookplates replaced. T h e r e are 370 titles in the early lists, representing 847 volumes, which cannot now be f o u n d in the library in any edi- tion dated before 1830, b u t an effort was made to supply complete author and title data f o r these. I n most cases this could be done with the aid of the L i - brary of Congress catalog, the British Museum catalog, and The English Cat- alogue of Books, although the comple- tion of some of the sketchy original en- tries is questionable. It has been as- sumed, f o r example, that "Wonders of the World" is an entry f o r Book of Curiosities, or, Wonders of the Great World, by J o h n Platts, published in L o n d o n in 1822; and that "Guion and MARCH 1959 127 Cowper" is probably Poems, by J e a n n e M a r i e G u y o n , translated by W i l l i a m C o w p e r and including some of his po- etry. A b i b l i o g r a p h y has been compiled of the books k n o w n to have been in the library before 1 8 3 0 . 5 I t includes the volumes w h i c h may be replacements, as well as those k n o w n to be the original copies, the latter differentiated by add- ing the call n u m b e r f o r the present loca- tion. A supplementary list contains the titles not f o u n d in today's library, com- pleting, if possible, the old-style binder's titles. B o t h lists show the w o r d i n g of the old entries, the libraries originally hold- ing them, a n d the n u m b e r of volumes of each work. T o g e t h e r , these compila- tions record the literary content of li- brary resources at the university b e f o r e 1 8 3 0 and suggest some comparisons and tentative conclusions. T h e catalog of the university library printed in the Minerva of 1802 indicated a small but v a l u a b l e collection. M o r e than half the books were gifts, including " t h e A m e r i c a n edition of the Encyclo- paedia, elegantly bound, 18 vols.," large works in history by H u m e , Smollett, G i b b o n , and R o l l i n , and a set of maps. T h e collection is overbalanced in the- ology, however, by a g i f t of 174 volumes of religious tracts. T h e remainder of pur- chases and gifts reaches into every field of knowledge: strong in philosophy, po- litical science, history, and the Greek a n d L a t i n classics, but weak in belles- lettres with only Tom Jones, Don Quix- ote, a n d " a v o l u m e of plays." O n the other hand, the society librar- ies a quarter of a century later showed their special functions of supplying re- sources f o r their programs and f o r light reading. T h e classification of literature is their largest, r a n g i n g f r o m Shake- speare and M i l t o n to the contemporary B Jane C. Bahnsen, " B o o k s in the University of North Carolina Library Since Before 1830" (Type- written manuscript, University of North Carolina Li- brary, 1958). novelists. Scott, Cooper, Goldsmith, a n d Fielding are among the most p l e n t i f u l l y represented, but—surprising in the man's w o r l d of this young college—the " r o m a n c e s " of a n u m b e r of female writ- ers appear: seven titles by A n n a M a r i a Porter, Paired—Not Matched, by Mrs. Ross, Fashionable Involvements, by Su- sannah G u n n i n g , and others. T h e soci- eties h a d strong collections also in his- tory and biography, and in voyages and travels to all parts of the world. T h e i r works on elocution and collections of oratory must have been u s e f u l to the weekly speakers, with such current peri- odicals as Annual Register, North Amer- ican Review, and Edinburgh Review to supply timely topics. T h e lively interest in w o r l d affairs is conspicuous in trea- tises on politics, economics, and law, and in the b i o g r a p h y and memoirs of statesmen and military figures. Special attention is devoted to France f r o m the R e v o l u t i o n through the N a p o l e o n i c pe- riod. A rough estimate can be made of the distribution by Dewey subject classifica- tion of the books investigated by this study. A l l o w a n c e must be made, of course, f o r the lack of i n f o r m a t i o n about the university collection between 1802 and 1830. A b o u t 8 per cent w o u l d f a l l in R e l i g i o n and in Social Science (300- class); 36 per cent are in L i t e r a t u r e , 26 per cent in History, and 1 2 per cent in B i o g r a p h y . T h e r e is very little in F i n e A r t s and T e c h n o l o g y , only about 3 per cent in N a t u r a l Science, and slightly more in Philosophy. It is a temptation to speculate as to the books f o r which no original copies were f o u n d . T h o s e of a textbook nature, particularly Greek and L a t i n , were un- doubtedly w o r n out, as were dictionaries and encyclopedias. Original copies of ephemeral fiction survived in greater n u m b e r than the works of Scott and Cooper. Collections such as Flowers of Wit and Elegant Extracts may have been 128 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES- overworked f o r society readings. N o fire took its toll, although f o r many years the books were housed on the third floor of a building heated by thirty-two open fireplaces. T h e largest single disaster occurred in the depredations by occupa- tion troops and vagrants following the C i v i l W a r . " T h e H a l l s & L i b r a r i e s are broken into at all times," wrote C o r n e l i a Phillips Spencer in 1 8 7 1 , "& I am told the Phi L i b . . . has its books scattered 8c torn all over the building. 6 Whether those deeds were simple vandalism or p u r p o s e f u l thievery is not indicated. T h e 6 Cornelia P. Spencer, Selected Papers. Edited with an introduction by Louis R. Wilson (Chapel H i l l : University of North Carolina Press, 1953), pp. 659-60. less dramatic processes of weeding a n d discarding, as new writings and new edi- tions crowded out the old, have left no record. T h e s e piecemeal analyses and observa- tions are f a r f r o m adequate to illustrate the beginnings of a great academic li- brary. I n terms of the hopes and hard- ships of the young nation of the early nineteenth century, it was a great library then, drawing largely on the literary wealth of the O l d W o r l d f r o m Aristotle to A d a m Smith, f r o m X e n o p h o n to Vol- taire, f r o m Dante to B y r o n — b u t listen- ing to the N e w W o r l d ' s J o h n Adams, Washington Irving, and J a m e s Feni- more Cooper. The N e w Book Rate and Policy on Interlibrary Loan of Dissertations T h e Committee on Microfilmed Dissertations of the Association of Research L i b r a r i e s has urged the librarians of the country, as a matter of policy, to purchase microfilm copies of doctoral dissertations accepted by A m e r i c a n universities when they are available f r o m University Microfilms in lieu of requesting the interlibrary loan of typewritten copies of these dissertations. Several inquiries have been received recently regarding the effect of the new postal book rate on this recommended policy. It seems to be the assumption that hitherto the cost of shipping a dissertation by express to and f r o m the borrowing library had been sufficiently close to the cost of a positive film copy to warrant relieving the university libraries of this interlibrary loan burden. N o w that typed dissertations may be mailed at a low book rate, this argument apparently has lost its validity. It is the view of the Committee that the existing system should be continued despite the fact that the dissertations may now be mailed at a low postage rate. T h e r e still remains the high cost of charging the dissertation to the borrowing library, w r a p p i n g it, receiving it w h e n it is returned, and discharging it. A t the borrowing end there is the additional cost of record keeping and of w r a p p i n g the dissertation f o r return. It is the view of this Committee that although these costs are concealed in some institutions, they are sufficiently high to j u s t i f y con- tinuation of the present more convenient system which centralizes the interlibrary loan work on doctoral dissertations included in the A R L program through the pvirchase of positive microfilm copies f r o m Uni- versity Microfilms.—Ralph E. Ellsworth, Ralph A. Sawyer, and Frederick H. Wagman. MARCH 1959 129