Rare Books Valued at More Than $1 Million Donated to MARBL at Emory

A collection of rare books valued at more than $1 million has been donated to Emory University’s Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL). The 22-title assortment, which includes one of the first books printed in the English language, was given by Ohio book collector and business leader Stuart Rose, an Emory alumnus.

“These extraordinary books will, without a doubt, enhance the prestige and scope of Emory’s collections,” says Richard Luce, provost and director of Emory Libraries. “Mr. Rose’s generosity and his dedication to strengthening MARBL are deeply appreciated.”

The Rose gift to Emory includes in its original binding a first edition of “Poems,” the first book published by English Romantic poet John Keats; a theological study by St. Thomas Aquinas that is now MARBL’s oldest book; and a 15th century volume of universal history, the “Polychronicon,” one of the first books published in the English language.

Among the other books in the collection are rare editions of works by:

Emily Brontë
Rudyard Kipling
Giacomo Casanova
L. Frank Baum
Victor Hugo
John Maynard Keynes and
Charles Dickens
Rose’s 1653 first edition of Izaak Walton’s “The Compleat Angler” is held by fewer than 20 libraries in the United States.

Rose, a 1976 graduate of Emory’s Goizueta Business School and a longtime MARBL patron and friend, is chairman and chief executive officer of REX American Resources Corp., a large public alternative energy company in Dayton, Ohio. In the last two decades he has built a remarkable rare book collection, including a signed presentation copy of a first edition of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” which he loaned to Emory for a special exhibition in 2009.

Spanning more than 800 years of human history, the holdings of Emory’s MARBL have particular strengths in literature and the arts, African American history and culture, religious expression and the freedom struggle. MARBL is one of North America’s major literary archives.

Rose’s gift to the library is part of Campaign Emory, a $1.6 billion fundraising endeavor that combines private support and Emory’s people, places, and programs to make a powerful contribution to the world. Investments through Campaign Emory fuel efforts to address fundamental challenges: transforming health and healing, gaining ground in science and technology, resolving conflict, harnessing the power of the arts, and educating the heart and mind.


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Newell Rubbermaid Pledges Support of New National Center for Civil and Human Rights

/PRNewswire/ -- Newell Rubbermaid will commit $500,000 to help construct and develop the new National Center for Civil and Human Rights facility in Downtown Atlanta.

"As a space for ongoing dialogue and study of human rights issues, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights will become a valued addition to the Atlanta community," said Jackie Parker, Vice President of Inclusion & Diversity and Corporate Philanthropy at Newell Rubbermaid. "We are proud to partner with the Center to advance global human rights as a part of our continued commitment to investing in the communities where our employees live and work."

The National Center for Civil and Human Rights will feature permanent and rotating educational exhibitions and serve as a vibrant and dynamic hub of activity around both historical and contemporary civil and human rights issues. The LEED-certified building is scheduled to break ground in 2011 and open in 2013, and will be located in Pemberton Place adjacent to the World of Coca-Cola and Georgia Aquarium.

Doug Shipman, CEO of the Center, said, "Newell Rubbermaid's generous support shows its commitment to the ideals behind the National Center for Civil and Human Rights and its care for the Atlanta community. We are excited to partner with them to make the Center a reality."

Newell Rubbermaid, headquartered in Atlanta with operations in Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, joins other prominent corporate partners of the National Center for Civil and Human Rights including The Coca-Cola Company, Delta Air Lines, The Home Depot Foundation, Turner Broadcasting System Inc., and The UPS Foundation.

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Georgia Trust Acquires Three Houses in Forsyth from Wal-Mart

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation announced recently its acquisition of three historic houses in Forsyth donated from the Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trust. The houses will become part of the Georgia Trust’s Revolving Fund program, which provides effective alternatives to demolition or neglect of architecturally and historically significant properties.

“These houses are representative of the historic architecture of Forsyth,” said Mark C. McDonald, President and CEO of The Georgia Trust. “Our goal is to save these historic properties and fulfill our obligation of helping the city of Forsyth find the best alternative for these houses” McDonald added.

Since 2006 the houses have been the subject of controversy as Forsyth city officials at the time rezoned a residential area to allow construction of a new Wal-Mart Supercenter. After the rezoning, Wal-Mart has worked with community preservation leaders and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation to reach an agreement, which will lead to the preservation of three historic homes in the buffer strip required by Forsyth planning officials.

About the houses
The Bloodworth-Pace House was constructed in 1875 and features a pedimented gable with pointed arch wood vents and shaped cornice brackets. The house was remodeled in the 1930s in the Colonial Revival style, and the original porch was replaced with a pedimented gable stoop with paired Doric columns.

The Bogle-Kyte House was constructed in 1914 and was once called "one of the handsomest homes in Forsyth." This two-story late Victorian-era house features a central hallway, large centered hipped roof dormer with fixed 4/1 windows, slightly overhanging boxed eaves, and tall corbelled brick chimneys.

The Miller-Webb House is a Victorian railroad cottage constructed around 1905. The house is two rooms deep with a central hallway.

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Coca-Cola Enterprises donates antique soda fountain to UGA College of Pharmacy

Coca-Cola Enterprises donated a historic soda fountain to the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy on September 17. The 1907 soda fountain, manufactured by Liquid Carbonic Co., is valued at $15,000.

Featuring a mirrored frame, marble counter tops and dispensing unit, the massive oak fountain has 13 flavoring dispensers. It was operational for many years at the Brightwell Store in Maxeys, before eventually moving to Coca-Cola Enterprises in Atlanta. The soda fountain now has a new home in the College of Pharmacy’s Alumni Suite, which was recently dedicated as part of the Pharmacy South Building project and renovations to the Robert C. Wilson Pharmacy Building.

Laura Brightwell, vice president of public affairs and communications at Coca-Cola Enterprises, is a descendent of the Maxeys Brightwell family. She and her colleagues at Coca-Cola Enterprises, Bill Douglas, executive vice president and chief financial officer, and Joe Cunningham, Coca-Cola facilities manager in Athens, officiated at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, along with Svein Oie, dean of the pharmacy college, and Dana Strickland, director of development.

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National Archives Announces Homecoming of Long-Lost Lincoln Letter

In a press conference on May 28, 2009, , the National Archives announced the homecoming of an original Abraham Lincoln hand-written letter to Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase. Lawrence M. Cutler, a private collector from Scottsdale, Arizona, donated the letter to the National Archives.

Written on Executive Mansion letterhead, the November 14, 1863, letter states:

Hon. Sec. of Treasury
My dear Sir
Mr. Stevens, late Superintendent of the Mint at San Francisco, asks to have a copy, or be permitted to examine, and take extracts, of the evidence upon which he was removed. Please oblige him in one way or the other.
Yours truly, A. Lincoln.

In presenting the Lincoln letter to Acting Archivist Adrienne Thomas, Mr. Cutler said, “It is both a great honor and a pleasure for me to give this very important Abraham Lincoln letter back to the citizens of the United States of America, especially during this bicentennial year of Lincoln's birth. It may always remain a mystery as to how this letter left the public domain and has remained in private hands for as much as a century. However, what is more significant is that today I am returning this letter to its long lost home.”

“The National Archives is pleased to accept this important gift, the return of President Lincoln’s November 14, 1863, letter to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase” said Acting Archivist Thomas. “This brief note, written five days before President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address, provides us with a window to look at a difficult personal crisis faced by Lincoln in the midst of the Civil War,” she continued.

The National Archives became aware of the existence of this Lincoln hand-written letter in 2006. Because the letter was written from the President to the Secretary of Treasury concerning a federal government matter, the National Archives launched an internal review to determine whether the document belonged in the National Archives.

The investigation revealed that at one time the letter was part of the General Records of the Department of Treasury, series 82 “Letters Received from Executive Officers, 1831-1869”. These included 141 volumes in which original letters were bound. According to the index to Volume 91, the letter should have been on page five. Upon examination of page five, it was discovered that only half of the page remained pasted into the volume---it included a one sentence summary of the letter, the date, and the author of the letter. The body of the letter was missing.

In part, the newly-found Lincoln letter is significant because the information in it was not known to Lincoln scholars or historians. The multi-volume Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln by Roy P. Basler, published in the 1950’s, does not include a copy of this letter. Although it is unclear exactly when the letter fragment was torn from the Department of Treasury volume, it appears that it predates Basler’s publication and may have happened when the volume was still at the Department of Treasury, sometime between the 1880’s when the letters were bound and the 1940’s when the records were transferred to the Archives.

Recently, the National Archives Document Conservation Laboratory examined the two parts of the letter with normal and transmitted light, ultraviolet lamp and stereo-binocular microscope. The letter and half folio were found to be identical in visual appearance. Both are on soft tan, medium-weight, smooth machine-made wove paper of even and identical formation. Both letter and half folio were measured with a micrometer and have the identical thickness of .012 millimeters. The one physical difference noted was the unevenly trimmed bottom edge of the letter. It appears approximately ⅛” to ¼” of the sheet is missing; otherwise the overall dimensions (5” x 8”) are identical.

When the folio was torn along its fold, small portions of the upper most layers of the paper support were torn, leaving behind matching indentations known as “beveled” or “shelved” areas. The small portions of the support that remain attached along the folio fold exactly match the shelved areas on the remaining folio half adhered in the volume.

Background
At the end of March 1861, President Lincoln had approved the appointment of Robert Stevens as head of the U.S. Mint in San Francisco. The President had appointed Stevens to the patronage job as a favor to Lincoln’s old friend, Oregon Senator Edward Baker. Stevens was Baker’s son-in-law. Baker, a fellow Republican, died in battle in 1861.

In 1863 Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase announced changes in the Customhouse and Mint, based on a report by special agent Thomas Brown who was sent to investigate Federal services in California. The report listed six charges against Stevens:

The hiring of bad men
Encouragement of insubordination and contempt for authority on the part of workers
Partiality as to the wages of clerks and laborers while others' were fixed much lower
“Sponges and barnacles” - many were absent without working but were still highly-paid
Purchase of inferior supplies at exorbitant rates
Being arrogant and discourteous to his managers
Based on these charges, Stevens was fired by Secretary Chase in April, 1863. For months following his removal, Stevens protested the firing, finally resorting to writing to President Lincoln.

The newly returned letter indicates that while Lincoln was not willing to override Chase’s decision, he did feel that Stevens deserved to see the charges against him. It emphasizes the President’s sense of fair-play and moral authority which served as a guide throughout his Presidency.

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