The Franklin Collection of
the Yale University
Library
This Collection, originally called at Yale
the Mason-Franklin Collection, is the most extensive collection of
materials by, about, and around Franklin and his times to be found in a
single collection anywhere in the world. It was assembled during the first
decades of the twentieth century by William Smith Mason of the Yale class
of 1888 Shef. Mason housed the collection in his
home in Evanston, Illinois, where he employed a personal librarian to assist
him in gathering materials and to care for the whole. Yale University acquired the entire collection in 1935. It was
hailed as the largest and most valuable gift ever made to the Yale Library
up to that date, and acknowledged as one of the finest collections ever
assembled around an individual. In anticipation of its arrival, the
University Librarian reserved room for it in the planning of Sterling
Memorial Library.
As private book collections go, this
assemblage was unusual in that Mr. Mason intended it to be not merely a
collection of rare books and manuscripts, but in every sense a working
library, and he welcomed qualified scholars to use it in his home while it
was there. He acquired not only rarities but scholarly and other books in
any way related to the central subject: biographies and published
correspondence of Franklin's friends and associates when these existed;
histories of the period, both general and local; extended runs of important
British and European eighteenth-century newspapers and magazines; extended
runs, or complete files, of the journals and published collections of
appropriate historical societies; monographs on topics relating to the
eighteenth-century American colonies and to events or issues of Franklin's
times; compilations of documentary materials; general reference works such
as the Britannica, Larousse, Dictionary of National Biography,
and Dictionary of American Biography; dictionaries and atlases, etc.
The books and pamphlets number approximately 15,000 volumes.
The rare books and pamphlets are
outstanding and include many of Franklin's own imprints, a few books from his personal
library, and some unique or almost unique items. Some of these are
described in George Simpson Eddy's "A Ramble through the
Mason-Franklin Collection," Yale University Library Gazette, X,
no. 4 (April 1936), 65-90.
In addition Mr. Mason gathered quantities
of manuscript materials, including a substantial collection of original
letters by or to Franklin and some of his contemporaries, with photocopies
or typescript copies of many others housed in other repositories. While in
number the Franklin letters in the manuscript collection rank only
about fifth or sixth nationally, many of them are particularly choice.
The Collection also includes a great deal
of pictorial material: one original contemporary oil portrait of Franklin
of major historical importance, a few other oils, and literally hundreds of
contemporary and later prints of the many Franklin portraits and of
portraits of his associates and contemporaries. Some of these prints are
framed and hang on the walls of the rooms of the Franklin Collection in
Sterling Library or in the corridor outside these rooms. The rest are filed
in cases where they are readily available for consultation and use. Mason's
collection of art objects is also significant, comprising several marble
busts (one of which is currently on display in the Starr Reference Room),
small sculptures in bronze and porcelain, and medallions in both bronze and
terra cotta.
The main body of the Collection is housed
in three adjoining rooms on the second floor of Sterling Memorial Library
(entrance through room 230). It is open to members of the Yale community
and to visiting scholars for research and study purposes Monday through
Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Visiting scholars have come to work here from all
over the United
States, Europe and Japan. Readers are advised, however, that a portion of
the Collection has been relocated to the Beinecke
Rare Book and Manuscript Library. This includes all the manuscripts, all
pre-1763 imprints (with the exception of periodicals), and individual printed
items of exceptional rarity and value.
When the undertaking began in 1954 to edit
and publish a comprehensive edition of Franklin's papers, the editorial staff was given the
privilege of setting up editorial offices in these rooms. Here they have
assembled photocopies of approximately 30,000 Franklin-related manuscripts
from various parts of the United States and 13 foreign countries. Until 1954, public
services were only available through the Sterling Reference Department.
When the editors of the Papers of Benjamin Franklin moved in, they
undertook to provide reader services. They continue to provide these
services as a courtesy, assisting visitors to the Collection and answering
queries from scholars around the world.
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