Mr. Edwin J. Beinecke

October 6, 1959

so on; English, German, French, Latin and Greek, Russian, Chinese, Tibetan, and all the rest. In modern historical manuscripts alone we have such individual groups of material as the House and the Stimson papers with over 100,000 items in each. We must keep acquiring both books and manuscripts to help train the scholars of the future and to supply the mature scholar with his raw materials.

In trying to meet this responsibility, we are already in trouble. To say nothing of future accessions, we already lack space in our various rare book and manuscript collections to transfer from our stacks thousands of volumes that need special protection. Yesterday my attention was called to a periodical in our stacks, which contains the first appearance of Mendeleyeff's article which is the very beginning of atomic research. It is the only copy in the United States, and one of the dealers specializing in science would doubtless ask $1,000 or more for a copy if he could find one. I feel it must be given better protection than our open stacks can afford, and in this case we are transferring it. But there are many thousands of similar items we do not have room to house in any of our rare book areas. The situation with respect to manuscripts is similar: many are stored in basement areas, where they are hard to get at and where the temperature is so high that eventual disintegration will be inevitable. Even our special rare book and manuscript areas are not air-conditioned, and I need not tell you what this means for their survival.

Our most critical need, then, is for properly controlled housing space for our present collections and for what we will acquire in the future, and this is what we are hoping a new rare book and manuscript building will supply. This is a very different problem from any the Morgan Library faces.

A moment ago I also mentioned the Houghton Library at Harvard. This is physically not unlike the Morgan Library - a very luxurious building that makes a tremendous impression on the visitor. Yet Harvard faces the same need Yale does (which a library like the Morgan or the Huntington does not) to serve a large number of scholars, both local and international. The Houghton Library has spacious and handsome rooms; it also has fine air-conditioned stack space for many of its present collections. But it already desperately needs more such stack space and reading-room space and working space for staff, and I think I am right in saying that they would give anything to be able to trade their luxury space for more stack and working space.

We already have excellent exhibition space in Sterling, and do not need to duplicate it. What we need in a new building is the space to give better care to what we now have and to encourage future donors by providing proper housing for what they may give.

A collection like Ed's Stevenson is an ideal collection for the

EDWIN J. BEINECKE

114 FIFTH AVENUE
NEW YORK

October 8, 1959

OCT 1 2 1959

Mr. James T. Babb, Librarian
Yale University Library
New Haven, Connecticut

Dear Jim:

Your letter of the 6th is a well reasoned woeful
document. Your affection for F. W. and me is no
greater than ours for you. We have seen eye to eye
with you in many situations in the past and undoubtedly
will in the future. However, we disagree with you as
to what we have in mind in contrast to what you have.

The Houghton Library which you mentioned several times
in your letter is exactly what we have in mind only on
a little larger scale. Stack space such as you set
forth, we believe is an obligation of Yale University.
You have plenty of space under the forecourt to the
Dining Hall and this can be filled in any time in the
future.

As I have written you before and also explained to you
we are not in a position to make definite commitments
for anything at the present time. I believe this whole
Rare Book Library building should be left in status quo
for the time being.

Whenever you come across a purchase for the Sterling
Library which you think is advantageous, Fritz and I
(if we are able) will certainly back you up. I think
it is only a few weeks ago that F.W. indicated this as
regards the Mexican War Collection which the library
needs to supplement its southwestern Americana Collection.

We all look forward to seeing you on the 20th.

EJB:vj