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xxi, [3], 235, [3] pages. Illustrations (most in color). References. Index. The Kislak Collection represents a lifetime of collecting informed by passion and intellect, and this publication is a record of a life of collecting, learning, and exploring. The collection encompasses more than three thousand rare books, maps, manuscripts, historic documents, artifacts, and works of art related to early American history and the cultures of Florida, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica. It is considered among the finest collections of its kind in the world, one that brings together material that is of equal interest to scholars and the general public. The collection includes unique materials documenting the early Americas from the time of the indigenous people of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean through the period of European contact, exploration, and settlement. Although it is one of the Library's newest collections, clearly it is an important one for present and future generations. Assembled over the course of five decades by Jay Kislak, this collection would be impossible to assemble today. More than a collector, Jay Kislak is a discoverer. His inquisitiveness and thirst for knowledge have inspired a lifelong love of books. More than a collector, Jay Kislak is a discoverer. His inquisitiveness and thirst for knowledge have inspired a lifelong love of books. Mr. Kislak and his wife, Jean, reknown avid collectors with far-ranging interests and the connoisseur's eye for quality.Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, Mr. Kislak graduated from the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and served as a naval aviator during World War II. After the war, he entered the real estate brokerage and mortgage banking business founded by his father in 1906.Early in his career, Mr. Kislak moved to Florida and began a fifty-year exploration of the early history of his new home. Attracted to rare maps and books, he began amassing a comprehensive collection on early Florida, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica. Over the years, his interest deepened, and he acquired many rare books and manuscripts, focusing especially on the early years of European exploration.Mr. Kislak and his wife, a former art curator, expanded their collecting to include artifacts produced by indigenous civilizations before Columbus. As a book collector, Mr. Kislak was intrigued by the art of the Maya--a highly literate culture that developed a complex system of hieroglyphs used to record their history in various ways: on architectural elements, pottery, personal items, as well as in books.With Jay Kislak's gift to the Library, thousands of books and artifacts will become available to researchers and the public, through scholarly and education programs and exhibitions.
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