The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-03-11
YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
4 LA RGE LIBRIRY FUND NEEDED
 TOMEET GROOMING DEMANDS.

4 LA RGE LIBRIRY FUND NEEDED
 TO MEET GROOMING DEMANDS. The First Library Contained Only Forty
 yolumes.-Now BIO, % Volumes, Hut
 Not Large Enough For University Needs
 --TnterestinG Facts in Its History-Pres-
 ont Fund $l1l,O00 Which Draws Five
 Per Cent.
 There has been considerable said re- gently in regard to the growing need of the Yale university library and it is said that although the library is one of the best in the country the growth of the university makes such demands upon it that there arises a necessity of further increasing it's fa- cilities. There are at present about 2lO,000 volumes in the library and the library fund amounts to $125,0OO of which the income is per cent. It is hoped by university authorities that this fund may be greatly increased, It is becoming realized that great university should have a great library and to still further carry out this idea more funds are needed
 The first contribution for perma- nent fund for the library was a bequest of 910 from Rev. Jared Eliot of Kill ingworth in 1763, which was followed in 1777 by bequest of ,s10 from Rev, Thomas Ruggles of Guilford and one of $1,122 from Rev. Samuel Lockwood of Andoyer, Conn.,, in 1791. In 1897 Hon. Oliver Wolcott gave $2,000 to the fund and in 1923 Eli Whitney of New Haven and Daniel Wadsworth of Hartford gave $500 each, the former for books on practical mechanics and the latter for books on national history and chem istry. In 1880 John T, Norton of AL bany gave $5,000 and in 1886 the largest sum up to that time was received, $10,- e0o by bequest of Dr. Alfred E. Perkins of Norwich, Conn Other gifts made up the fund in 1870 to $45, ,O00 Among the contributors of books during the period mentioned were Dr. William Till- house of New Haven, Professor Wool sey and Professor Salisbury Hon. Will liam w. Phelps was also large con- tributor.
 The first nucleus of the library con- sisted of forty folio volumes valued at 930. During the first dozen years of the college the accessions to the lib- rary were small and the first iinpor- tant accession was a collection sent over in TIA by Jeremiah Drummer, agent of the Massachusetts and Connecticut colonies, amounting to TOO volumes of which 92 were his own gift and the rest were obtained by his solicitation, among the donors being Sir Isaac New ton. Sir Richard Steele, Dr. Calamy, Matthew Henry and Sir Edmund An dros.
 Governor Yale added forty volumes, a forerunner of larger gift to follow About the same time, Sir John Davis formerly of Gaston, who had gone to England to take possession of an es- tate, sent over 200 volumes, mostly theological, and contributed in part by non-conformist ministers in Devon- shire. The original lists which accom- panied these gifts are preserved. among the papers of the college and many ! of the books can yet be identified, among them several of Sir Isaac New | tons.
 When the college was removed to 1 New Haven from Saybrook In 171S, | CPS was voted by the general assembly I to indemnify Saybrook for the loss of | the college, but the inhabitants of the town were not satisfied and resisted the sheriff's writ for the delivery of the books. In the attendant tumult 1 250 valuable books and various im- portant papers were taken by persons unknown. On reaching New Haven the library was increased by gift from | Governor Yale of 300 volumes and by a gift from Mir. Drummer of 76 vol- umes In 1733 there was valuable gift of 1000 volumes from Bishop Berkeley, 260 of them being folios and valued at G400. It was at that time consid- cred by President Clapp of Yale the | finest collection of books in America. There were no other large gifts of books | during the early years of the college and by small gifts and purchases the library increased slowly in size down to the time of the Revolution.
 In the first catalogue published in l743, the number of volumes was given as 2,800 and in 1755 as 3oo0 volumes. During the war the library was re- moved to the interior of the state for security, but the security obtained was l questionable, as many volumes were l lost in the removal and in the cata- logue of 1791 only 2,7O0 volumes appear. l About TOO volumes were given by the | late Professor Dana.
 1 During it's existence the library has been respectively in the original college building erected by the bounty of Gov ernor Yale, in Athanaeum, in Lyceum, then in the special library building l built for that purpose, and in 1890 part of it was moved into the new Chitten- | den library building, which was com | pleted in that year. This building is connected with the old library build- | ing, so that now buildings extending along High street from the Art school to the Treasury building are all occu- pied by the library and reference and reading rooms.
 The new Chittenden building cost $125, ,000 besides which the beautiful window in the western side of the ref erence room alone cost S10000 The
 building and window were given by