Schaffer Library : Special Collections



Special Collections

Special Collections and the Union College Archives are located on the third floor of the library. They operate under a closed stack policy, with daily hours designated for public access. Materials from this area do not circulate and must be used in Special Collections. Hours are listed outside the Special Collections doorway and also on the library web page. The designation "Special Collections" appears on some of the cards in the Card Catalog and in records in the online catalog. If you are interested in any of these materials, copy down the call number or computer printout and the members of the reference staff will direct you to this part of the library.

Special Collections maintained by Schaffer Library include:

College Archives & Union Book Collection
Bailey Collection of North American Wit and Humor
First Purchase Collection (Volumes acquired to set up the first library of the college)
Rare Book Collection

Schenectady Collection of Local History
Dudley Observatory Rare Books Collection

The original Ramee drawings for the campus.
Numerous other manuscript and archival collections are also housed in this area.

A Library of the Most Celebrated and Approved Authors:
Union's First Book Collection
Phi Beta Kappa Room of the Library at 2:00 pm on Friday May 30

a talk by Jeremy Dibbell
Union's first library collection, formed in the late 1790s, differs notably from its predecessors at the colonial colleges and many of its contemporaries at other post-Revolutionary institutions of American higher education. The library created by a committee of Union's trustees and its first president, John Blair Smith, was intentionally designed to serve as a functional, working book collection for the College's students and faculty; it reflects and enhances the original course of study, and the surviving portion of the library reveals significant evidence of early use and readership.

Times Union: A feather in Union's cap
The Times Union wrote an article on Schaffer Library's Audubon collection for Union's 2006 ReUnion Weekend. Special Collection put four of the plates out for display along with a wooden birdhouse replica of the Nott Memorial created by George Woodzell and Peggy Foley.

» View the birdhouse and Audubon plates

Online Features:

» William James Stillman

» Poe and His Progeny

» Union Notables

» ReUnion 2007

» The Olivier Models

» The Frank Bailey Collection

» Butter Sculpture of White Tara

Purple Martin
» The Birds of America by John James Audubon

The Birds of America, featuring 435 hand-colored engravings of native American bird species, was the creation of John James Audubon, who spent six years (1820-1826) traveling the wilds of the American continent in search of avian subjects. He drew each of the 489 species in its natural habitat, using such varied media as watercolors, pen, pencil, pastel, oils and egg-white to obtain the full effect of the bird. With these drawings, Audubon returned to England to arrange for publication of his masterpiece.

Blue-winged
Yellow Warbler
The printing and distribution itself was done over an eleven-year span, from 1826-1837. Two printing firms were contracted: that of W.H. Lizars of Edinburgh produced the first ten plates, while Robert Havell Junior and Senior of London were responsible for the overwhelming remainder. Each of Audubon’s species was engraved into a copper plate (life-sized), and then printed onto high-quality Whatman rag paper before being hand-colored with watercolors and other media. Audubon’s requirement that life-sized prints were necessary prompted the use of was what at that time the largest size page available: 29½ by 39½ inches, a “double elephant folio.”

Approximately 200 complete sets of The Birds of America double elephant folio were distributed to subscribers, at the then-hefty price of $1,000 apiece. Of the original sets, approximately 135 are known to remain in existence. Union’s copy was purchased directly from Audubon: when the naturalist visited campus in July 1844, President Eliphalet Nott arranged for the delivery of a complete set of the engravings, which arrived from England less than a year later. For many years they were neglected: a 1908 “Forest and Stream” article reveals that “they lay dust-covered and neglected in a portion of the library accessible to all,” and before 1922 they were re-discovered languishing in the attic of what is now known as Old Chapel. The four volumes are now housed in Schaffer Library’s Special Collections section.

Click on any of the Audubon images to view its bigger version.

Song Sparrow Carolina Parakeet Ivory-billed Woodpecker

Baltimore Oriole Ruby-throated Hummingbird Common Grackle

Questions for Special Collections can be directed to:
Ellen Fladger, Head of Special Collections at 518-388-6616, or email specialcollections@union.edu