News & Events

James Monroe letter book as Minister to France, 1794-1795 (C0938 No. 699)

New finding aids include the following:

Sir Stuart Samuel Travel Diary (N-000359)

This diary, written by British politician Sir Stuart Montagu Samuel (1856-1926), documents a visit that he and his brother, Herbert Samuel, made to the United States and Canada in 1888.

Richard Ullman Papers (MC282)

Richard Ullman (1933-2014) was a scholar of U.S. foreign policy and international affairs. The collection documents Ullman’s involvement with the CFR’s 1980s Project and with the State Department’s Kosovo History Project. The collection also includes materials related to Ullman’s first major scholarly publication, the three-volume Anglo-Soviet Relations, 1917-1971, as well as correspondence and subject files pertaining more generally to his later academic career.

John L. Swift Papers (MC283)

John Longworth Swift (1922-2013) was senior engineer and vice president of the Development and Resources Corporation (D and R). The majority of the collection pertains to Swift’s work for D and R, especially his supervision of the Dez Dam project in the Khuzestan region of Iran, though other domestic projects and projects involving the nations of Vietnam, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Uruguay and others are also documented. In addition, the collection contains D and R’s administrative records from the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly internal correspondence and notes regarding the general policies and restructuring of D and R.

T. A. Barron Papers (C1522)

T. A. Barron (1952- ) is an American writer of fantasy literature, books for children and young adults, and nature books. The collection consists of his literary and personal papers, including manuscripts and other draft materials, copies of his books and related promotional materials, international editorial correspondence, articles and speeches, personal journals and letters, fan mail, and correspondence with other authors.

Domenico di Francesco Cecchini “De conscribendis epistolis” (C0938 No. 698)

A notebook used by Domenico di Francesco Cecchini (flourished 1660s), who was perhaps a professional secretary, primarily for his unpublished epistolary manual, “De conscribendis epistolis.” Most of the text is a formulary of letters in Italian and Latin, written by Cecchini himself in a cursive hand.

James Monroe letter book as Minister to France (C0938 No. 699)

Dating from September 1794 to December 1795, this secretarial copy letter book contains 112 letters written by Monroe while he was serving as Minister to France to both American and European leaders. Although Monroe published a significant number of these letters in his “A view of the conduct of the executive, in the foreign affairs of the United States, connected with the mission to the French Republic, during the years 1794, 5, & 6” (1797), the letterbook includes eighteen previously unknown or unpublished letters and twelve with previously unrecorded corrections in Monroe’s hand.

New additions to existing collections were added to the following finding aids:

Joseph Frank Correspondence (C1515)

Joseph Frank (1918-2013) was an American literary scholar best known for his five-volume biography of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which he began in the early 1970s and completed in 2002. Recent additions to the Joseph Frank Correspondence include more correspondence with authors, friends, and family dating from the 1960s until 2013, including several additional letters from Yves Bonnefoy and Pierre Bourdieu, condolence letters sent to Marguerite Straus Frank following his death, printed materials inscribed to him, clippings, an interview transcript, and a small amount of miscellaneous writings by Frank, including notes from his PhD coursework at the University of Chicago, and some copies and corrected drafts of reviews and articles.

Nassau Hall on a rainy evening; 2007 November 26; Nat Clymer Photographic Collection (AC425), Princeton University Archives, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. Online here.

New finding aids include the following:

C. Leroy Ellenberger Correspondence Concerning Immanuel Velikovsky (C1518)

Consists of the correspondence of C. Leroy Ellenberger, one-time advocate and now critic of Immanuel Velikovsky, which relate to an article he published in the journal Kronos regarding the publication of Velikovsky’s Stargazers and Gravediggers: Memoirs to Worlds in Collision (1983).

Frédéric Gaillardet Manuscripts (C1519)

Consists of several manuscripts, some of which are unpublished, by French lawyer, politician, and writer, Frédéric Gaillardet (1808-1882), including a partial manuscript draft of L’Aristocratie en Amérique (Paris, 1883) and several other manuscripts, notes, documents, and clippings, primarily relating to Gaillardet’s time and travels in the United States, Canada, and Cuba from 1837 to 1848, particularly his time in Louisiana, Mississippi, and other southern states. Also included are manuscript drafts of unpublished plays and other writings.

“Heures contenant les prières pour dire pendant la messe ecrite(!) par Nicolas Sordoillet maître sculpteur à Dijon 1748.” (C0938 No. 696)

Hybrid manuscript prayer book in French, written and illustrated by the Burgundian sculptor Nicolas Sordoillet (born 1703; flourished 1740-1748) for his personal devotional use. Sordoillet painted three grisaille illustrations (pages 2-4), depicting the Virgin Mary, the Crucifixion, and a Guardian Angel leading a child. He also extra-illustrated the volume with six etchings on paper (not paginated) from a larger series of devotional illustrations, known collectively as La petite passion, by the French illustrator Jacques Callot (1592-1635). The prayer book is referred to as “Heures,” but is a series of vernacular French prayers to Christ and does not take the form of a book of hours.

Robert B. Oakley Papers (MC280)

Robert B. Oakley (1931-2014) was a Foreign Service Officer who served as U.S. Ambassador to Zaire, Somalia, and Pakistan. The collection consists of a comprehensive oral history with Oakley, along with his various speeches, articles, and papers on the topics of U.S. diplomacy and foreign relations, especially as these issues pertain to political instability in Pakistan and the Middle East, U.S. policies on terrorism, humanitarian disasters, and U.S. intervention in Somalia.

Nat Clymer Photographic Collection (AC425)

Nat Clymer was as a contract photographer for Princeton University from the early 1980s until the early 2000s. In his decades documenting different aspects of campus life and culture, Clymer was assigned to many departments and units of the university, most notably the Princeton Alumni Weekly. The photographs span Clymer’s career as a contracter photographer for the university. The collection offers a vivid portrayal of the University’s campus through portraiture of buildings, faculty, students, and alumni engaged in a wide variety of activities.

Wright Family Papers (AC419)

The Wright Family Papers consist of correspondence received at Princeton University by Harry H. Wright, class of 1903, and his son Richard R. Wright, class of 1935, during their undergraduate years, as well as printed postcards and class directories, a songbook and Daily Princetonian style book. The Wright family owned a farm in Allentown, New Jersey, and the correspondence reflects family news, domestic and farm life at the turn of the twentieth century and again during the 1930s.

New additions to existing collections were added to the following finding aids:

Reynaldo Hahn Correspondence (C1386)

A 2016 purchase includes two new letters (1911, 1932) addressed to Albert Gavy-Bélédin.

This collection consists primarily of letters written by Reynaldo Hahn, the Venezuelan born, fin de siècle French composer. The largest body of letters is addressed to Hélène Vacaresco, totaling 42 distinct letters from Hahn. Also present are letters to Hélène’s mother, Euphrosine Vacaresco (Eufrosina Fălcoianu). Other recipients include Alfred de Vigny, Albert Gavy-Bélédin, Sully Prudhomme, and other unidentified individuals. Additionally, non-correspondence materials include a manuscript regarding César Franck, personalized calling cards annotated by Hahn, and a title page of a musical composition titled, “Adieu”.

Paul A. Volcker Papers (MC279)

Series 8: Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP) and Other Groups, 1988-2010, consists of four boxes of records from the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (also known as the Volcker Commission), which investigated bank accounts in Swiss banks that had remained dormant since World War II. The series also includes one box containing a phone log book and materials related to Volcker’s service on boards or in advisory capacities with various organizations.

Arthur H. Thornhill Papers (C0882)

Additions to Series 4: Author Photographs, 1930-1988, were a bequest of the Arthur Thornhill, Jr., estate and include additional black-and-white photographs of Norman Mailer, Edward W. Brooke, Lillian Hellman, Henry Kissinger, Katherine Anne Porter, and others, some of which are inscribed to Arthur Thornhill, Jr. Also included are photographs of Thornhill at publishing events, Princeton alumni events, and with other staff at Little, Brown and Company.

Change of address note from Elizabeth Bishop and Lota de Macedo Soares to Joseph Frank (September 28, 1955) from the Elizabeth Bishop letters in the Joseph Frank Correspondence (C1515).

New finding aids include the following:

Students for Prison Education and Reform Records (AC429) [entirely born-digital]

Students for Prison Education and Reform (SPEAR) is a student organization that works to empower students to advocate for prison reform on issues such as mass incarceration, educational opportunities for prisoners, solitary confinement, the death penalty, and related issues. The SPEAR records consist of documents used by the leadership team of the organization to advance its mission including meeting minutes, planning documents, documents that outline the goals and aspirations of the organization, and materials relating to the organizational structure of the group.

Black Justice League Records (AC430) [entirely born-digital]

The Black Justice League (BJL) is a coalition of undergraduate students at Princeton University with the stated purpose of standing in solidarity with Ferguson (Missouri) and dismantling racism on the Princeton University campus. The collection consists of two of the organization’s social media webpages as well as an online petition that states the organization’s demands.

Latinx Collective Records (AC431) [entirely born-digital]

The Latinx Collective formed as an unofficial student organization in the fall of 2015 with the goal to support Latinx students on campus and encourage University administration to respond to the state of their lived and varied student experiences. The records include information about activism for the Princeton Latinx community, including meetings with administrators, town hall meetings, and proposal documents.

Sikhs of Princeton Records (AC433) [entirely born-digital]

The Sikhs of Princeton, a student organization established at Princeton University in the fall of 2009, exists to create a space on the University’s campus that provides resources for Sikh students to express their faith as well as to spread awareness of Sikhism to the Princeton community. The Sikhs of Princeton Records consist chiefly of photographs and videos of events sponsored by Sikhs of Princeton, including Sikh Awareness Day (2015) and guest speaker and singer, Amrit Kaur (2015).

Joseph Frank Correspondence (C1515)

Joseph Frank (1918-2013) was an American literary scholar best known for his five-volume biography of Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky, which he began in the early 1970s and completed in 2002. The collection consists of his personal and professional correspondence dating from the 1940s through the early 2000s, though primarily from the 1950s through the 1980s. Correspondents include Hannah Arendt, Elizabeth Bishop, Yves Bonnefoy, Pierre Bourdieu, Ralph Ellison, Carlos Fuentes, Irving Howe, James Laughlin, Richard W. B. Lewis, Mary McCarthy, Allen Tate, and many other poets, writers, artists, and academics. A small amount of family correspondence, personal documents, and printed materials, including inscribed reprints and chapbooks, are also present. Of note is a particularly rich group of 25 letters from the American poet Elizabeth Bishop to Joseph Frank, dating to the 1950s and early 1960s when Bishop was living in Brazil with her partner, Lota de Macedo Soares. Bishop discusses the intimate details of her daily life, her reading and writing habits, and her general impressions of living as an American expatriate in Brazil.

Dick Kazmaier Papers (AC434)

Dick Kazmaier was a Princeton University student and football player from 1949 to 1952. The Dick Kazmaier Papers include Kazmaier’s course materials (class notes, exams, and thesis research material), as well as football team photographs and award certificates from 1949 to 1951. A box of award plaques spans the dates 1950 to 1991.

Eugene and Jerine Bird Papers (MC281)

Eugene Bird (1925-) is a retired Foreign Service Officer who served primarily in the Middle East. During Eugene Bird’s tenure with the State Department, he and his family lived in Jerusalem, Beirut, Cairo, Bombay, New Delhi, and the Saudi Arabian cities of Jeddah and Dhahran. His wife, Jerine “Jerri” Bird (1926-2012), was an activist who started the nonprofit organization Partners for Peace, which sponsored speaking tours by Israeli and Palestinian women throughout the United States. The collection contains Eugene and Jerine Bird’s personal and professional correspondence, subject files on the Middle East, and writings, especially pertaining to Jerine Bird’s unpublished manuscript on Saudi Arabian women.

Harry Lee Bailey Bannock Indian War journal, 1878 (C0938 No. 694)

This journal, which covers the span of the Bannock Indian War from July to September 1878, provides a detailed account by U.S. Army officers of events in the field and at headquarters. Primarily kept by Harry Lee Bailey (1854-1934), 2nd Lieutenant, U.S. Army, it is predominantly comprised of the text of letters and telegrams to and from General Oliver O. Howard, as well as those sent by his chief officers in the field, Colonel Frank Wheaton, Colonel George A. Forsyth, and Captain Evan Miles. The journal’s other contributors include Captain Samuel Tobey Cushing and 2nd Lieutenant Charles Walter Rowell. Both Bailey and Rowell served as Acting Assistant Adjutant General during the campaign.

[Genealogie dei Principi di Europa], Italy, circa 1714 (C0938 No. 695)

Scribal manuscript in several hands, containing an anonymous text on the history and genealogy of Europe’s principal ruling families in the 17th century, including Austria’s Habsburg emperors, Great Britain’s Stuart kings, and the ruling houses of Portugal, Denmark, Poland, the Ottoman Empire, Bavaria, Saxony, Brandenburg, Hesse, Brunswick, Baden, Mecklenburg, Holstein, Saxe-Lauenburg, Lorraine, Kurland, Transylvania, Savoy, Tuscany (Medici), Modena (Este), and Parma (Farnese). An alphabetical index is included.

New additions to existing collections were added to the following finding aids:

Rita Guibert Collection of Latin American Authors (C1502)

An addition to the collection includes five audio cassettes from 1971 of interviews and Nobel Prize speech recordings of Pablo Neruda and one audio cassette of Mario Vargas Llosa for Channel 13 from 1989. Other additions include correspondence with Pablo Neruda, George Plimpton, Jorge Guillen, Ronald Christ and others; and printed materials that include an early edition Seven Voices in Spanish.

Rita Guibert (1916-2007) was an Argentine American author, journalist, editor, and translator. Guibert is best known for Seven Voices: Seven Latin American Writers Talk to Rita Guibert, published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1973. The collection includes audio cassette tapes containing Guibert’s in-depth interviews with Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Octavio Paz, Julio Cortázar, Miguel Ángel Asturias, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Manuel Puig, Carlos Fuentes, José Donoso, and others. Other materials include correspondence with authors, photographs, and drafts of articles Guibert wrote for magazines including LIFE en Español, Nuestro, The Paris Review, and Revista Iberoamerica.

Madison Smartt Bell Papers (C0771): Subseries 7B: 2015 Accession

Madison Smartt Bell (1957-) is an American novelist best known for his trilogy of novels about Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution, published between 1995 and 2004. His papers consist of writings, personal and professional correspondence, family documents, memorandum books, printed materials, and subject files, including drafts, galleys, and proofs for his novels, short stories, and other writings from 1983 until 2011. The 2015 accession comprises an additional 12.4 linear feet of research, draft, and publishing materials related to his works, The Year of Silence, Behind the Moon, Devil’s Dream, The Color of Night, Soldier’s Joy, Charm City, Red Stick, Zig Zag Wanderer, Lavoisier in the Year One, Soul in a Bottle, and Toussaint Before the Spirits, as well as additional correspondence from 2002 to 2011 and subject files from 1995 to 2014. Bell is a living author, and future accruals are expected.

Edmund Keeley Papers (C0763): Series 11: 2013-2014 Accessions

Edmund Keeley (1928-) is an author, translator, and Charles Barnwell Straut Professor Emeritus of English at Princeton University, best known for his translations and writings on modern Greek poets. This series contains a large group of additional papers received from Edmund Keeley in 2013-2014, including drafts and proofs of novels, translations, and editorial projects, correspondence, as well as family papers, a large collection of family and travel photographs, and biographical materials. Writings include drafts, galleys, notes, and correspondence for Keeley’s books Albanian Journal, the Road to Elbasan, Borderlines, A Memoir, “The Grand Tour” (unpublished), On Translation: Reflections and Conversations, The Salonika Bay Murder, Cold War Politics and the Polk Affair, School for Pagan Lovers, and Some Wine for Remembrance, as well as for his translations and writings on poets Constantine P. Cavafy, Odysseus Elytēs, Giannēs Ritsos, and George Seferis, and for anthologies he edited, including A Century of Greek Poetry, 1900-2000 and W. W. Norton’s The Greek Poets: Homer to the Present. Additional personal, family, and professional correspondence, files on Keeley’s lectures, grants, and work with various international organizations, writings by fellow poets and translators, personal documents, memorabilia, and printed materials are also present.

Princeton University Library Records, AC123, Series 33: Emily Belcher Subject Files

This series consists of files retained, created, managed, and otherwise used by Emily Belcher, who retired in October of 2015 as the subject librarian for African American Studies and Women’s Studies. Belcher, hired as Princeton’s subject librarian for the (then) Program in Afro-American Studies in 1985, was previously the special collections librarian at Morgan State University and earned her library science degree from Queens College and her MA in American History from New York University. At different points in her Princeton career, Belcher also served as the subject librarian for Anthropology and Asian American Studies and as a liaison to the Anthropology Department.

The files document a variety of perspectives and experiences of black students, faculty, and staff from the 1960’s through 2015. Additionally, the series contains the office files of the (former) Afro-American Studies Collection, a reference library collection formerly housed in Firestone Library and established in 1966 to support the then-named Program in Afro-American Studies. Curators of the Collection and subsequent subject librarians include: Helen Lee (1966-1968), Ann Slevin (1969-1970), Pat Roca (1970-1971), Louise Anderson (1972-1980), William Welburn (1980-1984), and Emily M. Belcher (1985-2015).

Letter from Secretary of State Edward Livingston to Senator Littleton W. Tazewell, Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Relations, April 23, 1832 from Princeton University Library Collection of General John Ross Delafield Family Materials (C1508)

New finding aids include the following:

La verite des sciences natureles, circa 1605 (C0938 no. 692)

Likely one of the first French monographs about physiognomy, this manuscript was probably written in the years following the publication of the work “De la Sagesse” by Charon (1601), which is the latest book quoted by the author. The very dense text gives a detailed presentation of an elaborated theory of physiognomony, with more than 200 chapters and distinct sections. The anonymous author, who appears to have been astrologist, chiromancer, architect, and mathematician, first gives a general description of the body and the soul, after Hippocrates’ humoral theory, as well as the connections which bind them together, and the factors that influence the temperament. The author then follows with a very detailed enumeration, in various chapters of significations, of the physical particularities of each part of the body.

Analyse de la vie de l’abbé Raynal, circa 1800-1820 (N-000170) 

An anonymous, partially unpublished text about the life of Guillaume-Thomas-François Raynal, abbé de Raynal (1713-1796).  Most of the text is Raynal’s Address to King Louis XVI, published in Marseilles in 1789; however, there are also 33 unpublished pages devoted to finances.  Antoine Jay’s biography of Raynal, Précis historique sur la vie et les ouvrages de l’abbé Raynal, published in 1820, is very similar to this manuscript, though his work is missing several pages that this item contains, including the last leaf and one or two pages from the end the introduction.

Princeton University Library Collection of General John Ross Delafield Family Materials (C1508)

Consists of miscellaneous professional and personal papers created by various members of the Delafield, Livingston, and other related families, including Edward Livingston (1764-1836), Philip Livingston (1740-1810), and Philip Schuyler (1788-1865), among others. Materials about family members are also included.

William C. Seitz Notebooks (C1514)

William Chapin Seitz (1914-1974) was an art historian, painter, and museum curator who received the first PhD in modern art from Princeton University in 1955. The collection consists of ten notebooks Seitz kept for his early courses on ancient art and architecture in Princeton University’s Department of Art and Archaeology in 1949 and 1950. Notebooks contain reading and lecture notes, sketches of ancient sculptures and buildings, and clippings from art history textbooks, including reflections on lectures by Princeton professors E. Baldwin Smith and Richard Stillwell.

Program in Hellenic Studies Records (AC207)

The Program in Hellenic Studies Records document the academic and cultural offerings sponsored by the Program. The offerings include lectures, discussions, and colloquia led by faculty, fellows and visiting scholars, as well as concerts, exhibitions, and film screenings. The records also include annual reports of activities, lists of fellows, and related materials. The records primarily consist of email correspondence, reports, and promotional materials such as flyers and programs.

New additions to existing collections were added to the following finding aids:

Sergio Pitol Papers (C1283)

A 2015 addition to the collection includes print out draft manuscripts with heavy handwritten edits and annotations of Pitol’s works dating from 2001-2010, which include drafts to El mago de Viena, La vida conjugal, and El Viaje.

The papers consist of Sergio Pitol’s diaries, journals, notebooks, handwritten, typescript, and print out manuscripts of literary works, correspondence, personal documents, and papers of others about Pitol. There are manuscripts of unpublished works such as “Conversaciones con Sergio Pitol” (unpublished); and published manuscripts El desfile del amor, Domar a la divina garza, El viaje, and La vida conyugal. Correspondence includes letters from friends, writers, artists, literary critics, agents, and publishers such as Rosario Castellanos, José Donoso, Carlos Fuentes, Witold Gombrowicz, María Luisa Mendoza (la China), Carlos Monsivaís, Augusto Monterroso, José Emilio Pacheco, Octavio Paz, Elena Poniatowska, Manuel Puig, Juan Soriano, and Juan Villoro among others.