As Curator of Rare Books, Stanley Brown works diligently in an office behind the glass enclosed bookshelves of the Treasure Room in Baker Library, which houses some of the College's rare book collections.
His office is cramped with piles of letters from scholars and book dealers, stacks of books ranging from Roget's Thesaurus to bound books dating to the early 18th century. In a corner of the wall is a framed sketch of Jack London, author of "The Call of the Wild," that was found in an old book. On another wall is a photograph of the author in a much reproduced pose.
The windows are covered by an ultraviolet proof film. On Brown's desk is a Macintosh IIci which connects him to a network of dealers and collectors from as far away as Belgium and South Africa.
Brown's office captures the combination of technology and materials making up the Special Collections, which includes more than five million manuscripts; 70,000 rare books; more than 200,000 black and white negatives, slides and transparencies; and College archives dating back to its founding in 1769.
Among the manuscripts are several dozen letters by George Washington, handwritten notebooks by Robert Frost, a former Dartmouth student who dropped out after his freshman year, and an illuminated Attavente Book of Hours from Florence dating back to1495.
Special Collections also includes holdings by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a Canadian advocate of polar exploration who moved to the Hanover region in the late 1940s, letters by Henry Miller, manuscripts by poet Sylvia Plath, diaries by Anais Nin and all but one book of Gertrude Stein, Brown said.
"Anybody in the Dartmouth community who wants to look at manuscripts is welcomed to them," said Philip Cronenwett, the curator of manuscripts and chief of Special Collections.
He said that about 25 percent of the 8,000 people who use the collection are students and added he would like to see the percentage increase. The other users are mainly faculty, scholars and alumni.
Special Collections gets requests from all over the world, he said, recalling a member of the surgical faculty from the State Medical University of Russia who had visited a few weeks earlier to view some manuscripts. Just after stating this, a staff member interrupted Cronenwett with a call from the Republican National Convention requesting information.
Kept in rooms with temperature and humidity controls, and alarms for intrusion, standing water and fire, Special Collections' materials are well maintained. The College also maintains a preservation workshop to repair some of Special Collections' possessions.
Many of the items in Special Collections are acquired largely through a steady flow of gifts from alumni and benefactors. Usually, the College receives a rare book or collection and then purchases other books, manuscripts and material to complement it.
For instance, in 1939 the library acquired 70 books and miscellaneous material written by or pertaining to T.E. Lawrence, a.k.a. "Lawrence of Arabia." Since then, that collection has grown to more than 150 items and includes all of his first edition books. The most recent addition was a 1936 first edition of "The Mint," published posthumously by his brother and priced at half a million dollars. There were only 50 copies made. The College acquired the copy last Spring through a bequest. The book was tracked down by a bookseller friend of Brown who knew the College had been looking for a copy for several years.
Coincidentally, Brown, who coordinated the purchase, has an old connection with Lawrence. "My grandfather," he said, "had some report relationship with T.E. Lawrence during World War I." Brown recalled his grandmother saying that she "didn't like that horrid little man." T.E. Lawrence became popular during World War I when he united Arab tribes driving the Turkish forces of the Ottoman Empire out of Arabia.
Books must meet special criteria to be considered rare books, according to Cronenwett. Some Special Collection books are one of a limited edition. Others have a renowned pedigree, or important ownership history. For instance, Shakespeare's Quartos in the collection had been owned by various noblemen in the 1700s, he said.
Prices are usually set through the market force by a willing buyer and seller, Cronenwett said. Books usually increase in value when an author dies. Others, such as books by Mary Wollstonecraft, rise in value through trends or movements. Wollstonecraft, an 18th century feminist writer, became well known among the suffragettes of the late 19th century and again with the rise of the women's movement during the last two decades. The books and manuscripts purchased are then entered into the On-Line Catalog and opened for public use. Some books and collections are sent to various parts of the country and the world for special displays.
