The Library's First Collection
In a letter to Chancellor Bowman, Miss Frick outlined the trip that Dr. Clapp would take to Europe in order to collect materials for the first collection. She says, "[i]t is understood that he will sail shortly for a year's absence abroad: Six months of this time he will collect material, such as books, slides, and photos and the additional six months he will devote his time to the preparation of his courses" (Frick 1925-1985).
While Dr. Clapp was traveling Europe, he often wrote back to Miss Frick in order to update her on his progress. After his return, lists quantifying the amount of items that were to be a part of the first collection were made. Here is the list, for example, of how many books were purchased, from where in Europe, and for how much:
Having knowledge of what materials were a part of the library's collection, not simply how much and from where, could be valuable to have in order to come to certain conclusions about what the founders' vision was for the library and the Fine Arts Department. Throughout this project I have focused on trying to discover the first books and where they were purchased, but discovering what slides and photographs were acquired, and where those collections were purchased, would be an equally interesting provenance project.
