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Show Marriott Fund Report Page 2 to the operation of a library of our size, but the position had remained unfilled due to the press of other, equally important matters. The impetus of the Marriott Gift Fund in creating this position will be recognized as significant for all the forseeable years to come just as the material purchased with the Fund will have an unending effect on the quality of the library collections which are being built. II. MAJOR PURCHASES 1. A collection of over 50 percent of the titles in the Wagner- Camp Bibliography: THE PLAINS A N D THE ROCKIES. This bibliography lists more than 460 titles of books published between 1800 and 1865 which give descriptions of overland trips across the great Plains and into the Rockies. The books themselves are basically research material for students of Western History, culture, etc., and many are so scarce as to be known only in a few copies. The collection of more than 260 titles was a result of a decade of collecting by a private collector and gives us the basis for building one of the most significant collections of Western Americana in the Inter-mountain West. $38,250 2 . A scholar's working collection of Walt Whitman material. This collection contains nearly 1,5 00 volumes is divided roughly into thirds: Works of Whitman, works about Whitman, and works wherein a significant portion deals with Whitman. Probably no library in the Intermountain West can match this collection. $20,000 3. A collection of more than 1,000 titles in the history of science put together by Dr. Herbert M . Evans (discoverer of Vitamin E of the University of California. This collection is essentially two pronged, made up of about 350 classics in the history of science (for example, several different first edition Darwins, a first edition Vesalius, etc.) and the remainder in modern, basic reference works. The collection itself is spectacular but probably more important is the fact that it establishes, for our rare book collection, a firm base upon which to build toward real strength in this area. Although the history of science is a natural for the University of Utah with its 100 year background as a science oriented institution, its growth has always been retarded by the lack of money which the Marriott Gift Fund has now provided. $90,000 |