Collecting the Imagination: The First Fifty Years of the Ransom Center (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center Imprint Series) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0292714890 ISBN 13: 9780292714892

Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr, 2007

Synopsis

The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin is one of the world's preeminent institutions for the study of literature, photography, and the humanities. The Ransom Center is renowned for its remarkable collections of literary manuscripts, rare books, photographs, art, and film and performing arts materials. Founded in 1957 with a core collection of rare books, the Ransom Center has expanded its holdings at a phenomenal rate, so that it now houses 36 million leaves of manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and one hundred thousand works of art. Among its most famous holdings are a Gutenberg Bible; the Helmut Gernsheim Collection, a major photohistorical archive that contains the world's first photograph (ca. 1826); the Carl H. Pforzheimer Library of Early English Literature; the Watergate papers of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein; the archive and costume collection of Robert De Niro; and the personal literary archives of hundreds of major twentieth-century writers, from Samuel Beckett and James Joyce to Tom Stoppard and Norman Mailer. This volume celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the Harry Ransom Center. Staff members describe the Center's founding, the remarkable growth of its collections as part of a thoughtful and deliberate acquisition plan, and its extensive outreach to scholars, students, and the general public. They pay tribute to the leadership of Harry Ransom, who conceived the idea of a research center in the humanities that would be for the state of Texas what the Bibliothque Nationale is for France. The authors also tell fascinating stories of how individual collections and archives were acquired, as well as some of the controversies and myths that have arisen as a result of the Ransom Center's liberal spending and rapid growth. Photographs of treasures from the Ransom Center and key figures in its history round out this lovely and authoritative volume.

About this title

About the Author

MEGAN BARNARD has worked at the Ransom Center since 2003. As Assistant to the Director, she works closely with Thomas F. Staley on many aspects of the Center’s daily administration, from collection development to publications.

Edition details

• Publisher: Univ of Texas Pr
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0292714890
• ISBN 13: 9780292714892
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 132
• Editor: Barnard Megan