Gifts to Library
THE RARE-BOOK COLLECTIONS of Baker Library have recently been enriched by two notable additions. A valuable collection of material by and about Rupert Brooke, combining with previous acquisitions to give Dartmouth the finest Rupert Brooke collection in existence, has just been received, partly by purchase from library funds and partly by gift from George Matthew Adams, father of George Matthew Adams Jr. '31; Thomas Streeter '04; and Thomas Streeter Jr. '44. Also recently received, as a gift from Hamilton Gibson '97, is a collection of over 500 volumes, many of them valuable American and English first editions.
The new Rupert Brooke material includes approximately 200 books, the original typescript from which Poems of 1911 was printed, the original autographed manuscript of John Donne, four autograph letters signed by Brooke, and ten original photographs of the English poet. This collection had been gathered by Mr. R. G. Potter of Hartford, Conn. The rarest item in the collection is a copy of ThePyramids, an autograph presentation copy from the author. There are eight books from Brooke's own library, some bearing his autograph.
Several years ago Dartmouth acquired, with very few exceptions, the complete library of Brooke. Now some of these missing volumes return to the original collection.
The 500 volumes given to Dartmouth by Mr. Gibson are from the personal library which he has been building up over a period of years. Mr. Gibson originally intended to bequeath his books to Dartmouth, but finally decided to give them now. In this collection are about 100 first editions of American and English writers. Among the rarest of these are Robert Frost's North of Boston London 1914, Mark Twain's Adventures of HuckleberryFinn and Poe's Eureka. In the collection also are a good many beautifully illustrated books, including those illustrated by Rockwell Kent, John Austen, Frank C. Pape, Jean de Bosschere, W. Heath Robinson and Hugh Thomson.
