Rare Book Monthly

Articles - June - 2009 Issue

Institutions Are Still Buying

UCSF collection details online

UCSF collection details online


By Bruce McKinney

Recently I asked Terry Belanger, MacArthur fellow, full professor and Director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia, about institutional buying and he encouraged me to contact a cross-section of institutional buyers for perspective. Their outlook is encouraging if sanguine. I spoke to Daniel De Simone, David Whitesell, Lynda Claassen, Doug Erickson, Martin Antonetti and Katherine Reagan, all of whom convey a commitment to continuing acquisitions although their budgets, prospects, logic and approaches differ substantially. They are all headed in the same direction although taking different paths. Mr. De Simone is Curator of the Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress; Mr. Whitesell, Curator of Books at the American Antiquarian Society; Ms. Claassen, Director, Mandeville Special Collections Library at the University of San Diego; Mr. Erickson, Head of Special Collections/College Archivist for the Watzek Library at Lewis & Clark College; Martin Antonetti, Curator of Rare Books at Smith College and Catherine Reagan, Curator of Rare Books & Manuscripts, Carl A. Kroch Library, Cornell University.

Lynda Claassen of UC San Diego, describes her department's funding as organized over a period of years and therefore less sensitive to upturns and downturns in the economy. For her the process is straightforward. A group of dealers she describes as "more than 25" [and always open to new participants], know the university collections and their acquisition emphases. These dealers offer vetted and appropriate material which is first considered within the rare book department and then, if deemed appropriate, submitted for review and acquisition. She is of course balancing faculty and department directives as well as considering the effort put forth by the dealers, all the while keeping a weather eye on her budget, which as it is consumed, is subject to replenishment at the end of the fiscal year. She views dealers as an extension of her department resources, periodically deaccessions duplicates and shares with them transaction proceeds for those items they can place. Hers is a collaborative approach and dealers an extension of her resources.

Daniel De Simone, Curator of the Rosenwald Collection at the Library of Congress tells a similar story. His acquisitions budget for early printed books has remained constant and he is constantly reading catalogues and considering specific proposals. He’s been doing this at the Library of Congress for more than 10 years and has developed a fine eye for the unusual. As is true for Ms. Classen he buys offered [as opposed to auction] material. As he explains it, I have to write a proposal and justification for material I want to acquire. Doing this for material at auction [at prices and outcomes unknown], just does not fit our methodology. Lest anyone feel he's leaving great material unconsidered, every day the library receives 10,000 communications. A portion lands in his in-box, the reading and consideration ongoing, never-ending. "I love my job." Does anyone doubt it?

Rare Book Monthly

  • DOYLE
    Rare Books, Autographs & Maps
    July 23, 2025
    DOYLE, July 23: WALL, BERNHARDT. Greenwich Village. Types, Tenements & Temples. Estimate $300-500
    DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
    DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
    DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
    DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
    DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
  • Freeman’s | Hindman
    Western Manuscripts and Miniatures
    July 8, 2025
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
    Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.
  • Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
    Sotheby’s
    Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern
    Now through July 10, 2025
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
    Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
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