Hill Memorial Library received a donation last week of rare books from all over the world valued at more than $200,000.
The 79 titles are still in the process of being unpacked and catalogued, but once they are, the books will be available for public viewing, said Jessica Lacher-Feldman, head of special collections.
Private collector Tom Taylor donated part of his collection of “voyage and travel” books dated as early as the 17th century. The 79 titles depict various subjects concentrated in regions like the East Indies, Australia, Asia and Africa.
Taylor said the works complete the collection Hill Memorial already has of ornithology books by providing examples from all over the world. The library’s prior collection focused more on birds of the New World.
Taylor entered the rare book trade when he was 18 years old and has spent decades building his collection of rare books. When he was active in the rare book trade, the University used to buy books from him, Taylor said.
After he entered rare ornithology book trade, Taylor said he needed a place to study rare bird books, and he used Hill Memorial’s resources to do this.
“[Hill Memorial] is a wonderful place to work. I’ve had some wonderful times in that reading room,” Taylor said.
One of the books donated is from 1703 and documents one of the earliest explorations of Australia. The book has a world map inside the front cover, but Australia is only halfway depicted because the territory had not yet been fully explored, according to Michael Taylor, assistant curator of books for Hill Memorial.
With the addition of these books to the library, Hill Memorial’s collection has expanded to help educate those wanting to learn about birds around the world, Michael Taylor said. The interaction between animals and humans is also depicted in many of the works, including drawings of dissection, he said. While this isn’t a new concept, the collection shows accounts of this from more than a hundred years ago, which is quite hard to find.
The monetary value of the collection comes from the difficulty to find works of travel from such a long time ago, and any voyage books from an interesting place tend to be genuinely rare and valuable, Tom Taylor said.
“[Hill Memorial] is a wonderful place to work. I’ve had some wonderful times in that reading room.”