Harvard University Library Receives $1,000,000 from NEH
The Harvard University Library Preservation Center is pleased to announce receipt of a 1 million dollar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The award will fund a two-year project, beginning in July 1997, to microfilm materials published between 1800 and 1950 documenting the history of science in America. Books, pamphlets, and journals will be selected in four subject areas:
- the history of medicine
- history of anthropology
- history of astronomy
- American historical textbooks in mathematics and science
The grant proposal to NEH was prepared by Preservation Center staff in collaboration with librarians at the Countway, Gutman, Tozzer, and Wolbach Libraries. Materials will also be selected from the Cabot Science and Widener Libraries. The project is envisioned as the first phase of a major initiative to preserve Harvard's holdings in the sciences.
Historical Context
A dominant scientific institution in the 19th century, Harvard fostered and documented the establishment and growth of key scientific disciplines. As the University entered into the realm of scientific research and exploration, it amassed study collections comprising hundreds of thousands of specimens and illustrations as well as scientific data. At the same time, faculty, alumni, and patrons built complementary library collections of great strength. Harvard's consistent support of scientific and mathematical research has ensured the breadth and depth of its library collections, and today they represent unparalleled historical resources reflecting the far-reaching impact of science in society.
Unfortunately, a high percentage of all 19th and 20th-century publications were printed on acidic paper, which decays and becomes brittle with age. Since the 1930s, research institutions and scholarly societies have established programs to copy deteriorating library collections on microfilm.
Participating Collections
Countway Library of Medicine
These collections include publications on public health, mental health, preventive medicine, and infectious diseases. They document the evolution of the study and practice of medicine, the lives of great physicians and practitioners, the development of medical and social institutions, and the impact of disease on community life.
Tozzer Library
Selections will be made from anthropological, archaeological, and ethnographic materials focusing on the Americas. The development of the Tozzer collections dates back to the founding of the Peabody Museum at Harvard in 1866, during the period when anthropology was just emerging as an established scientific discipline. The collections are especially strong in materials relating to the indigenous people of the Americas.
Wolbach Library (Harvard College Observatory)
Selected collections of 19th and early 20th century publications of astronomical observatories around the world will be microfilmed. These reports of research projects, which include observations of variable stars, star catalogs, and solar data, are still frequently consulted.
Gutman Library (Graduate School of Education)
These collections include American mathematics and science textbooks which provide a unique view of scholarship in a given discipline. They document the point at which scientific ideas and findings become widely enough accepted in society to be included in school curricula; and reveal the methods used in teaching, what young students learned, and how viewpoints and content changed over time.
Plan of Work
Approximately 5,300 books and 2,200 serial volumes will be microfilmed during the course of the project. Staff in the Preservation Center will work with collections librarians to select materials for filming, search bibliographic databases to ensure that these books have not already been filmed, check volumes for missing pages and order replacement pages through Interlibrary Loan, and catalog and prepare titles for filming. All filming will be done in Imaging Services in the Harvard College Library, according to established national standards and guidelines. After the master negative microfilm is inspected for completeness and quality, a duplicate negative and positive service copy will made. The master and duplicate negatives are stored in the Harvard Depository. Should the service copy become damaged during use, a new one can be made from the duplicate negative. Microfilm that has been produced by Harvard is available for loan to scholars worldwide, and libraries and individuals can purchase copies through Imaging Services.