Lilly Library | |
---|---|
39°10′04″N86°31′08″W / 39.1679°N 86.5190°W | |
Location | Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. |
Established | 1960 |
Branches | N/A |
Collection | |
Size | Approximately 450,000 books, 8.5 million manuscripts, 60,000 comic books, 16,000 mini books, 35,000 puzzles, and 150,000 pieces of sheet music. [1] |
Access and use | |
Circulation | Library does not publicly circulate |
Population served | 48,514 faculty, staff, and students at Indiana University Bloomington, additional scholars, and members of the public |
Other information | |
Director | Joel Silver |
Employees | 20 [2] |
Website |
The Lilly Library, located on the campus of Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, is an important rare book and manuscript library in the United States. At its dedication on October 3, 1960, the library contained a collection of 20,000 books, 17,000 manuscripts, more than fifty oil paintings, and 300 prints. Currently, the Lilly Library has 8.5 million manuscripts, 450,000 books, 60,000 comic books, 16,000 mini books, 35,000 puzzles, and 150,000 sheets of music.
The Lilly Library was founded in 1960 with the collection of Josiah K. Lilly Jr., owner of Lilly Pharmaceuticals in Indianapolis. J.K. Lilly was a collector most of his life. From the mid-1920s until his death, he devoted a great deal of his leisure time to building his collections of books and manuscripts, works of art, coins, stamps, military miniatures, firearms and edged weapons, and nautical models. J. K. Lilly's collections of books and manuscripts, totaling more than 20,000 books and 17,000 manuscripts, together with more than fifty oil paintings and 300 prints, were given by the collector to Indiana University between 1954 and 1957. These materials form the foundation of the rare book and manuscript collections of the Lilly Library.
The extent to which J. K. Lilly realized his collecting goals was summed up by Frederick B. Adams Jr., at the dedication of the Lilly Library on October 3, 1960: "Mr. Lilly's books cover so many fields that it is difficult to believe that any one man's enthusiasm could encompass them all. It is equally astounding that he was able to acquire so many books of such scarcity and quality in the short space of 30 years. Money alone isn't the answer; diligence, courage, and imagination were also essential. The famous books in English and American literature, the books most influential in American life, the great works in the history of science and ideas--all these are among the 20,000 Lilly books in this building." [3]
The library now contains approximately 450,000 books, 8.5 million manuscripts, 60,000 comic books, 16,000 mini books, 35,000 puzzles, and 150,000 pieces of sheet music. [1]
The library's holdings are particularly strong in British and American history and literature, Latin Americana, medicine and science, food and drink, children's literature, fine printing and binding, popular music, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, and early printing. [5] There are many notable items in the library's collections.
The library also owns the papers of Hollywood directors Orson Welles and John Ford, film critic Pauline Kael, the poets Sylvia Plath and Ezra Pound, and authors Edith Wharton and Upton Sinclair.
After the death of Ruth E. Adomeit in 1996, her collection of miniature books was donated to the Lilly. The Adomeit collection is considered to be one of the largest collections of miniature books. The collection is titled 4000 Years of Miniature Books. [7]
The Adomeit collection ranges the entire history of human record keeping in miniature form, from cuneiform tablets of circa 2000 B.C. to contemporary small press and artists' books.
Michael Uslan, producer of the Batman movies, donated over 30,000 comics to the Lilly Library. Parts of the collection were displayed at the Lilly Library in an exhibition called "Comics as Cultural Mythology: The Michael E. Uslan Collection of Comic Books and Graphic Novels" from September 12, 2005 to December 17, 2005. [8]
The Uslan Collection also contains a vast array of action figures [9] as well as other pop culture memorabilia, [10] which can be accessed through the Lilly Library Request System.
The collection is currently housed at the Auxiliary Library Facility (ALF) and can be accessed for use through IUCAT, the Indiana University Library catalog. [11]
In 2006, the library received a collection of 30,000 mechanical puzzles and 4,000 puzzle related books from Jerry Slocum. [12] The collection is the largest assemblage of its kind in the world. Mechanical puzzles are hand-held objects that must be manipulated to solve the puzzle. The collection spans multiple centuries and five continents. [13]
The collection is on permanent display in the Slocum Puzzle Room and includes puzzles that can be handled by visitors. The Lilly Library is currently developing an online database of the collection.
The Lilly contains an extensive collection of material that centers on the French Revolution of 1789. The collection contains approximately seven thousand pieces and includes all types of printed materials, such as journals, polemical pamphlets, and many other documents. The collection consists of 3,362 legal publications. The majority of the other documents are royal and administrative acts published in pamphlet form between 1789 and 1799. There are royal edicts, arrets, addresses, declarations, reglements, lettres patentes, rapports, ordonnances, memoires, lois, and various other titled or untitled official documents. [14]
The Mendel collection is divided into two categories: one relates to the period of geographical discovery and exploration and the other consists of additions made by the Lilly Library after the original acquisition. The geographical and discovery collection ranges from the 15th through the 19th century. It includes the great cosmographic and geographic works of Ptolemy as well as narratives of the discovery and conquest of the New World. The emphasis of the subsequent acquisitions is on Latin Americana from the 17th through the 19th century, with particular attention to Mexican history. [15]
The Mendel Room in the Lilly was dedicated in 1964. [15]
The Lilly Library has the personal papers of James Whitcomb Riley in a variety of manuscript collections. There are also miscellaneous uncataloged materials that includes clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, memorabilia, and other ephemera. The majority of his writings and personal correspondence are found in the Riley mss. Hundreds of Riley’s books are listed in Indiana University’s online catalog. [16] On the 150th anniversary of his birth, the library produced an online exhibition that explores James Whitcomb Riley’s impact on American society and the 19th century literary world.
The Lilly Library has other Indiana authors in their collection as well.
The Lilly Library houses 2,000 motion picture scripts, including the second draft script for the film Chariots of Fire. In order to supplement the script material the library added to the collection material from Orson Welles, John Ford, Clifford Odets, and most recently Peter Bogdanovich. The library is home to 800 BBC radio scripts and the papers of Lance Sieveking and D. G. Bridson. The television scripts consist mostly of material from John McGreevey as well as scripts from such television shows as Star Trek and Mission: Impossible . [17]
The library houses 150,000 pieces of sheet music. The prominent collections are the Sam DeVincent Collection of American Sheet Music, the Starr Sheet Music Collection, and the Wildermuth Collection of Hoagy Carmichael Sheet Music. [19]
The library has the original pen and ink drawings from Dale Messick's comic Brenda Starr. The collection is organized and searchable by date. [20]
The material is made up of papers relating to meetings, correspondence, drafts, conferences, periodicals and books from the Mystery Writers of America association. [21]
The library has 94 poems as well as 3,324 examples of correspondence, writing, and memorabilia from Sylvia Plath. The poems are arranged in chronological order and the miscellaneous items are organized by type. 150 books from Plath's only library are housed at the Lilly Library as well. [22]
The Lilly Library is located on the southern side of a small square in the heart of the Indiana University Bloomington campus. Showalter Fountain is in the middle of the square. Indiana University Art Museum and Indiana University School of Fine Arts are on the opposite (northern) side of the square. Indiana University Auditorium is on the square's eastern side. [28]
A manuscript was, traditionally, any document written by hand or typewritten, as opposed to mechanically printed or reproduced in some indirect or automated way. More recently, the term has come to be understood to further include any written, typed, or word-processed copy of an author's work, as distinguished from the rendition as a printed version of the same.
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university in Bloomington, Indiana. It is the flagship campus of Indiana University and its largest campus with over 40,000 students. Established as the state's seminary in 1820, the name was changed to "Indiana College" in 1829 and to "Indiana University" in 1838.
A chapbook is a small publication of up to about 40 pages, sometimes bound with a saddle stitch.
A miniature book is a very small book. Standards for what may be termed a miniature rather than just a small book have changed through time. Today, most collectors consider a book to be miniature only if it is 3 inches or smaller in height, width, and thickness, particularly in the United States. Many collectors consider nineteenth-century and earlier books of 4 inches to fit in the category of miniatures. Book from 3–4 inches in all dimensions are termed macrominiature books. Books less than 1 inch in all dimensions are called microminiature books. Books less than 1/4 inch in all dimensions are known as ultra-microminiature books.
Jerry Slocum is an American historian, collector and author specializing on the field of mechanical puzzles. He worked as an engineer at Hughes Aircraft prior to retiring and dedicating his life to puzzles.
Aurelia Frances Plath was the wife of Otto Emil Plath, the mother of the American poet Sylvia Plath, and her brother Warren, and the grandmother of Frieda Rebecca Hughes and Nicholas Farrar Hughes.
Michael E. Uslan is an American lawyer and film producer. Uslan has also dabbled in writing and teaching, he is known for being the first instructor to teach an accredited course on comic book folklore at any university.
Josiah Kirby "Joe" Lilly Jr. was a businessman and industrialist who served as president and chairman of the board (1953–66) of Eli Lilly and Company, the pharmaceutical firm his grandfather, Colonel Eli Lilly, founded in Indianapolis in 1876. Lilly, the younger son and namesake of Josiah K. Lilly Sr., graduated from the University of Michigan's School of Pharmacy in 1914 where he was a member of the Chi Psi Fraternity. He served in the U.S. Army in France during World War I. At Eli Lilly and Company, where his primary focus was marketing and human resources, he served as vice president of marketing, executive vice president of the company, and president of Eli Lilly International Corporation, before succeeded his older brother, Eli Jr., as company president in 1948 and as chairman of the board in 1953.
The T puzzle is a tiling puzzle consisting of four polygonal shapes which can be put together to form a capital T. The four pieces are usually one isosceles right triangle, two right trapezoids and an irregular shaped pentagon.
Iona Margaret Balfour Opie, and Peter Mason Opie were an English married team of folklorists who applied modern techniques to understanding children's literature and play, in studies such as The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1951) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). They were also noted anthologists, assembled large collections of children's literature, toys, and games and were regarded as world-famous authorities on children's lore and customs.
The John Hay Library is the second oldest library on the campus of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is located on Prospect Street opposite the Van Wickle Gates. After its construction in 1910, the Hay Library became the main library building on campus, replacing the building now known as Robinson Hall. Today, the John Hay Library is one of five individual libraries that make up the University Library. The Hay houses the University Library's rare books and manuscripts, the University Archives, and the Library's special collections.
Ruth E. Adomeit was an American writer, editor, collector of miniature books and philanthropist.
The Nina Mason Pulliam Indianapolis Special Collections Room is a special collection of the Indianapolis Public Library in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States.
IUPUI University Library is the university library of Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis. IUPUI is an urban campus of Indiana University and Purdue University in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. Indiana University is the managing partner.
The Golden Age of Indiana Literature is a period from 1880 to 1920 when many nationally and internationally acclaimed literary works were created by natives of the state of Indiana. During this time, many of the United States' most popular authors came from Indiana. Maurice Thompson, George Ade, Booth Tarkington, Theodore Dreiser, Edward Eggleston, Frank McKinney Hubbard, George Barr McCutcheon, Meredith Nicholson, Gene Stratton Porter, Lew Wallace, and James Whitcomb Riley were foremost among the Hoosier authors.
Ceiling Unlimited (1942–1944) is a CBS radio series created by Orson Welles and sponsored by the Lockheed-Vega Corporation. The program was conceived to glorify the aviation industry and dramatize its role in World War II.
David Anton Randall was an American book dealer, librarian and bibliographic scholar. He was head of Scribner's rare book department from 1935 to 1956, librarian of the Lilly Library and Professor of Bibliography at Indiana University. Randall was responsible for the sale of two copies of the Gutenberg Bible. As a practitioner of bibliology with a bibliophiliac addiction, a raconteur of history of books, and an avid collector, he developed a keen appreciation for books as physical objects—including the tasks of collecting, cataloging, finding and preserving them.
The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (RBML) is located on the 3rd floor of the University Library. The library is one of the largest special collections repositories in the United States. Its collections, consisting of over half a million volumes and three kilometers of manuscript material, encompass the broad areas of literature, history, art, theology, philosophy, technology and the natural sciences, and include large collections of emblem books, writings of and works about John Milton, and authors' personal papers.
The Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music holds over 100,000 individual audio and video recordings across over 3500 collections of field, broadcast, and commercial recordings. Its holdings are primarily focused on audiovisual recordings relating to research in the academic disciplines of ethnomusicology, folklore, anthropology, linguistics, and various area studies.
Dulcina Minerva Mason Jordan was an American poet and journalist.
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