Category Archives: Featured Collections

New Digital Collection

American University Library is pleased to announce its newest digital collection – The Photographic Materials and Other Art Work of Herbert E. Striner

Herbert E. Striner is an economist and the former Dean of the Kogod School of Business at American University.  He got his first camera when he was waiting to return home from the China-Burma-India Theater at the end of World War II.  Dr. Striner took his camera with him on his personal and professional travels depicting the people he met and the places he visited.  Dr. Striner switched to digital photography in 1999.    His collection consists of over 9,000 black & white negatives, color slides, and color negatives depicting a wide variety of subjects in the United States and abroad from the 1940s to 1998 including Washington, DC landmarks such as the National Cathedral and C&O Canal.  Some of the earliest photographs in this collection document life on a troop ship.   Digitization and cataloging of this collection is ongoing.  Please visit the site at http://www.aladin.wrlc.org/dl/collection/hdr?striner

George Washington offers financial support for a national university in the federal city

While developing the plans for American University, Bishop John Fletcher Hurst discovered that George Washington was an early supporter of a national university in the nation’s capital.

In a letter to the Governor of Virginia, Robert Brooke, dated March 16, 1795, Washington proposed designating his shares in the Potomack (Canal) Company for an early initiative to create a national university in the “federal city.”  Washington’s support for this project stemmed from his concerns about the state of graduate education in the United States.  He was worried that “the youth of the United States [are] migrating to foreign countries for the higher branches of erudition” and “that a serious danger is encountered in sending abroad among other political systems those who have not well learned the value of their own.”

Hurst purchased this letter in the 1890s and carried it with him on his early fundraising trips.  Hurst felt his plan for a graduate institution which would be open to “both young men and women alike” matched George Washington’s goals for a national university.  Upon his death, Hurst’s Library was sold at auction but W.L. Davidson, Secretary of the University, purchased the letter with his own money.   Davidson was eventually reimbursed through donations.  This letter and its connection to American University’s past are treasured by the campus community.

Visitors are welcome to stop by Archives and Special Collections to read the letter.

Bishop John F. Hurst Autograph Collection (1532-1883)

AU’s founder, Bishop John Fletcher Hurst, was an avid collector. In addition to a large library, he amassed a small autograph collection. The books, correspondence, and documents in this collection highlight Hurst’s interest in astronomy, Italy, mathematics, nature, and religion. It includes letters written by Michael Faraday (1851), Lamarck (1822), and Alexander von Humboldt as well as letters relating to the unification of Italy three of which were written by Giuseppe Garibaldi. Of note are several 19th century papal bulls, 16th century astronomical text entitled Liber Ioannis de Sacro Busto De sphaera / / addita est præfatio in eundem librum Philippi Mel. ad Simonem Grineum, and a 1581 decree of King Philip II of Spain.

A University Chancellor’s Library

What can you learn about someone by studying the books they read?

Joseph M.M. Gray, a Methodist minister, served as Chancellor of American University from 1934-1940. At his inauguration in 1934, American University launched its School of Public Affairs. American University Library is in the process of cataloging some books from Gray’s personal library. The books are all inscribed and dated. The inscriptions include Gray’s location so you can follow his travels. One of the books is marked “On S.S. Lapland.” Other locations include Detroit, Michigan, Gray Rocks, Gloucester, Massachusetts, Kansas City, Missouri, and Scranton, Pennsylvania. Gray Rocks was the name of his family’s summer home. Many of the books are slightly annotated. The multiple inscriptions in the back document that Gray read John Brown’s Body by Stephen Vincent Benet several times between 1928 and 1934. His annotations range from comments “It was Grant who said…” to criticism “This would be better in alternating rhyme.” The collection reveals his interest in poetry, Shakespeare, and Greek drama. Though we do not have his entire library, this collection does provide us with insight into Joseph M.M. Gray as an individual.