June 30, 1994

Press Contact: Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Public Contact: Kate Rivers (202) 707-2386

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Library of Congress Rare Book Division Receives Bradley Foundation Grant To Support Lecture Series

The Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress has received a grant of $45,000 from the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation to support a pilot lecture series on "books that mattered to Western citizenship, statecraft, and public policy." Based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Bradley Foundation focuses on projects that will create a renewed and more vigorous sense of citizenship among the American people.

"We are delighted that the Bradley Foundation has chosen to support this lecture series, which is a critical component in our strategy to raise the national visibility of the Division and its treasures," said Larry Sullivan, Chief of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Two distinct categories of books will form the subject matter of the series. The first, classics of Western political philosophy and social thought, will include books such as Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, John Locke's Second Treatise on Government, and Cesare Beccaria's On Crimes and Punishments. The second category, books that are less well-known but have had a profound effect on public policy debates, will include Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan's report, The Negro Family, which influenced social policy during the Great Society years, and Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, which fueled the great debate on anti-trust in Theodore Roosevelt's administration.

At each lecture, the Rare Book Division's early editions of the work under discussion will be on display and one of the Division's curators will discuss the early printing history ofthe book; a distinguished guest lecturer will then reassess its contents and impact.

The Library intends to publish these lectures and to broadcast them via satellite downlink to college and university campuses around the country in collaboration with its Center for the Book. A panel of distinguished scholars will help the Division select the books and speakers for the series. Declan C. Murphy, Curatorial Specialist, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, will be the project director.

The Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress is the national rare book collection. It systematically collects rare and fine editions of works important to the study of Western Europe and the United States. The overall scale of the Division's holdings is remarkable. Today it contains approximately 750,000 books, broadsides, pamphlets, theater playbills, title pages, prints, posters and photographs. The treasures of its European holdings include the largest collection of incunabula (i.e., books printed before the year 1501) in the Western hemisphere and the personal libraries of Tsar Nicholas II, Adolf Hitler and Sigmund Freud. Its Americana holdings include the personal libraries of Thomas Jefferson, Susan B. Anthony, Woodrow Wilson, Harry Houdini and Theodore Roosevelt.

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PR 94-107
6/30/94
ISSN 0731-3527