UVM Libraries

Friends of Special Collections

An Invitation

You are cordially invited to become a member of the Friends of Special Collections at UVM, a group of individuals interested in books and manuscripts who would like to share that interest with others while at the same time assist the Library to maintain its fine collections of original and scarce research material.

The University of Vermont library is older than most states of the Union. During its long period of helping to educate young men and women from Vermont and the nation the UVM library has acquired numerous rare and valuable printed works through the generosity of benefactors like Benjamin Franklin Stevens, Rush Hawkins, Lucius E. Chittenden, Frederick Billings, James B. Wilbur, Lorraine Dexter, and Lester and Olwen Prindle, to name only a few. All of this material is maintained in the Department of Special Collections.

The major research collections which have grown through the benefactions of donors include the Wilbur Collection of Vermontiana, which is the finest collection of Vermont materials in the country, the collection of illustrated editions of the Metamorphoses of Ovid, works on printing history, the imprints of the Chiswick Press and Stinehour Press, Civil War history, the history of photography, books and manuscripts of John Masefield, other book collections of merit, plus a major collection of nearly a half million photographs.

The collections of manuscripts and unpublished papers are too numerous and extensive to describe here. They occupy thousands of linear feet and contribute to the history and study of Vermont from pre-Revolutionary times to the present. From Ethan and Ira Allen to Warren R. Austin and George D. Aiken, from the Lake Champlain Transportation Company to the Estey Organ Company, from Zadock Thompson to Dorothy Canfield Fisher, and from Camp Quinibeck to the Vermont Farm Bureau, the collection covers all of Vermont. Beyond the area of Vermont, Special Collections maintains holdings of correspondence and manuscripts of English Poet Laureate John Masefield, an important group of letters from American novelist Willa Cather, business records and correspondence of the great antiquarian and bookseller Henry Stevens, Jr., papers of the Institute of Pacific Relations, and many other distinguished collections which have attracted researchers from throughout the world.

Your membership in the Friends will help insure that these collections and others yet to come will be preserved for scholars and students of the future. We hope you will join the Friends, not only to assist the Department of Special Collections in its work of collecting and preserving but also to participate in a rewarding association with others who value books and manuscripts. As members of the Friends you will enjoy various privileges, depending upon the level of participation that you select. The categories of membership and their prerogatives are as follows:

• Basic Membership $25.00: includes semi-annual newsletters, notification of special exhibits and invitations to lectures and presentations. Use of the library but not borrowing privileges.
• Sustaining $50.00: includes all the above plus reduced prices on exhibit catalogues and other library publications, and borrowing privileges if you requested them on the application form.
• Benefactor $100.00: includes all of the above plus complimentary copies of exhibit catalogs and other library publications.
• Patron $200.00: all of the above plus copies of posters commissioned by the library.
• Fellow $500.00: all of the above plus complimentary copies of selected fine/limited editions of new books or other printed work.