The W. Arthur Lewis Papers were added to the UNESCO Mem­ory of the World Reg­is­ter in July 2009. Sir William Arthur Lewis was a pio­neer in the field of devel­op­ment eco­nom­ics and a lead­ing author­ity on eco­nomic growth.

Pro­fes­sor William A. Lewis (cen­ter) with Chief C.D. Akran, West­ern Nige­ria Min­is­ter of Eco­nomic Plan­ning and Chief J.A. Oshunto­ken, West­ern Nige­ria Min­is­ter of Lands and Labour, circa 1956 in London

His aca­d­e­mic work ranged from an inter­est in eco­nomic plan­ning in indus­tri­al­ized coun­tries to an inter­est in eco­nomic devel­op­ment of devel­op­ing coun­tries and an inter­est in the inter­na­tional trad­ing sys­tem. He also served as the United Nations Eco­nomic Adviser to the Prime Min­is­ter of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, as the Deputy Man­ag­ing Direc­tor of the United Nations Spe­cial Fund, and also as the Vice Chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­sity of the West Indies and as the found­ing pres­i­dent of the Caribbean Devel­op­ment Bank.

Lewis also broke sev­eral racial bar­ri­ers dur­ing his career. In 1979, he became the first man of color to be awarded an aca­d­e­mic Nobel Prize (Eco­nom­ics) for his analy­sis of not only eco­nomic growth but also the struc­tural trans­for­ma­tion of the economies of Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The Mem­ory of the World Pro­gramme was started in 1992 to “guard against col­lec­tive amne­sia by call­ing upon the preser­va­tion of the valu­able archives hold­ings and library col­lec­tions all over the world ensur­ing their wide dis­sem­i­na­tion.” UNESCO has many pro­grams to pro­mote the preser­va­tion, access, and aware­ness of the impor­tance of archival and library col­lec­tions around the world. The Reg­is­ter, begun in 1996, is com­posed of descrip­tions of col­lec­tions of world sig­nif­i­cance. Thirty-five col­lec­tions were added to the Reg­is­ter this year, includ­ing the Diaries of Anne Frank, the Magna Carta, and the League of Nations Archives. The Lewis Papers were sub­mit­ted for con­sid­er­a­tion to the Reg­is­ter by the National Archives Author­ity of Saint Lucia.

–Adri­ane Hanson

The Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives at the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library will cel­e­brate its 50th anniver­sary with an open house from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sat­ur­day, Oct. 10.

The library will grant pub­lic access to its col­lec­tions stor­age areas for archivist-led tours, offer­ing vis­i­tors an extra­or­di­nary first­hand look at more than 250 years’ worth of col­lected Uni­ver­sity his­tory and lore. The rarely exhib­ited 1748 char­ter of the Col­lege of New Jer­sey also will be on display.

This piece of parch­ment, which is stamped with the royal seal of King George II, stands as the University’s found­ing doc­u­ment and is a cor­ner­stone of the archives’ collections.

(Photo by Roel Muňoz.)

Also on dis­play dur­ing the open house will be “‘The Best Old Place of All’: Trea­sures from the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives,” a com­mem­o­ra­tive exhi­bi­tion fea­tur­ing some of the most his­tor­i­cally sig­nif­i­cant doc­u­ments and objects from the archives col­lec­tions along­side seldom-seen trea­sures. High­lights include the ear­li­est diploma (from a mem­ber of the Class of 1749, the sec­ond class to grad­u­ate from Prince­ton), a set of hand­writ­ten stu­dent lec­ture notes from the time of John With­er­spoon, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s grade card.

The Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Archives offi­cially was estab­lished in Octo­ber 1959 to col­lect records cre­ated by Uni­ver­sity fac­ulty, staff and stu­dents. These records doc­u­ment Uni­ver­sity admin­is­tra­tion, the devel­op­ment of aca­d­e­mic depart­ments and pro­grams, and stu­dent life. The Uni­ver­sity Archives con­sists of more than 15,000 lin­ear feet of records. Since 1976 it has been housed in the Mudd Man­u­script Library, where a sophis­ti­cated secu­rity sys­tem, envi­ron­men­tal con­trols and a Halon fire sup­pres­sion sys­tem ensure the pro­tec­tion and preser­va­tion of the library’s hold­ings. The library serves more than 5,000 researchers each year and cur­rently is in the midst of sev­eral pro­cess­ing ini­tia­tives aimed at increas­ing dig­i­tal access to the col­lec­tions for remote users around the world.

The Mudd Man­u­script Library is located at 65 Olden St. Open house tours will begin at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon. Addi­tional infor­ma­tion about the library, its pro­grams and its hold­ings is avail­able at http://www.princeton.edu/mudd.

As part of Prince­ton University’s ongo­ing goal of expand­ing build­ing acces­si­bil­ity, Mudd’s wheel­chair ramp is sched­uled to be upgraded start­ing on Mon­day, July 13, 2009.

This project is expected to take four weeks to com­plete. The first part of the con­struc­tion involves the removal of the old ramp, which is expected to last three to four days. The ini­tial removal work will involve jack­ham­mers, which of course are very noisy. Please note that the ramp is imme­di­ately adja­cent to Mudd’s read­ing room and the jack­ham­mer­ing will cer­tainly be notice­able from within the read­ing room. Dur­ing this time, Mudd staff will pro­vide ear plugs for any patrons upon request.

Dur­ing the con­struc­tion period, any patrons who require an access ramp should enter Sher­rerd Hall, adja­cent to Mudd, and then exit through its east door, through which access to Mudd’s front door is possible.

If you have any ques­tions about the con­struc­tion or Mudd’s acces­si­bil­ity, please feel free to con­tact us at 609–258-6345 or mudd@princeton.edu.

The Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity con­tin­ued its 50th anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion by exhibit­ing the University’s 1748 Char­ter dur­ing Reunions Week­end on May 29th and 30th. More than 128 alumni, staff, and fam­ily mem­bers came out to view Mudd’s 2009 exhi­bi­tion enti­tled The Best Old Place of All, fea­tur­ing a vari­ety of trea­sures from the archives on dis­play. But undoubt­edly the penul­ti­mate pub­lic dis­play of the Uni­ver­sity Char­ter was the main draw. While always avail­able online at the Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Dig­i­tal Library, the parch­ment orig­i­nal will only be show­cased once more on Sat­ur­day, Octo­ber 10, with no other pub­lic view­ing planned before the University’s 300th Anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion in 2046.

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The See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library, in con­junc­tion with Prince­ton University’s Office of Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, has just added its first videos to the University’s YouTube Chan­nel. In the com­ing months, the Mudd Library plans to post a vari­ety of audio­vi­sual mate­ri­als to the University’s two YouTube Chan­nels, with items cho­sen from both the Uni­ver­sity Archives and Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers.

Our first video chron­i­cles the May 20, 1963 move of Cor­win Hall to its cur­rent loca­tion across from Wal­lace Hall and Robert­son Hall. After nearly two months of plan­ning, Cor­win Hall (then known as Wil­son Hall), was pushed along steel tracks for 12 hours from its loca­tion on Wash­ing­ton Road in order to make room for the new Robert­son Hall. Shot on 8 mm film, this video shows a time lapse of the move. For more details about this move, please see this entry in the Prince­ton Companion.

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