Harry Ransom Center

The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) is an archive, library and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States, Latin America and Europe for the purpose of advancing the study of the arts and humanities. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, one million rare books, five million photographs, and more than 100,000 works of art.[1]

The Harry Ransom Center, June 2012

The Center has a reading room for scholars and galleries which display rotating exhibitions of works and objects from the collections. In the 2015-2016 academic year, the center hosted nearly 6,000 research visits resulting in the publication of over 145 books.[2]

History

Harry Ransom founded the Humanities Research Center in 1957 with the ambition of expanding the rare books and manuscript holdings of the University of Texas. He acquired the Edward Alexander Parsons Collection,[3] the T. Edward Hanley Collection,[4] and the Norman Bel Geddes Collection.[5][6]

Ransom himself was the official director of the Center for only the years 1958 to 1961, but he directed and presided over a period of great expansion in the collections until his resignation in 1971 as Chancellor of the University of Texas System. The Center moved into its current building in 1972.

F. Warren Roberts was the official director from 1961 to 1976 and acquired the Helmut Gernsheim Collection of photographs, the archives of D. H. Lawrence, John Steinbeck, and Evelyn Waugh, and in 1968 the Carlton Lake Collection.[7]

After Roberts's tenure, John Payne and then Carlton Lake served as interim directors from 1976 to 1980. It was during this time (in 1978) that the Center acquired its complete copy of the Gutenberg Bible.

In 1980, the Center hired Decherd Turner as director. Turner acquired the Giorgio Uzielli Collection of Aldine editions,[8] the Anne Sexton archive, the Robert Lee Wolff Collection of 19th-century fiction, the Pforzheimer Collection,[9] the David O. Selznick archive, the Gloria Swanson archive, and the Ernest Lehman Collection.[10] Upon Decherd Turner's retirement in 1988, Thomas F. Staley became director of the Center.[11] Staley had acquired the Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers,[12] a copy of the Plantin Polyglot Bible, and more than 100 literary archives. In September 2013, Stephen Enniss was appointed director of the Ransom Center. Enniss was formerly the Head Librarian of the Folger Shakespeare Library.[13] Under Enniss the Ransom Center has continued to collect several archives, including Kazuo Ishiguro,[14] Arthur Miller[15] and Ian McEwan.[16]

In 1983 the institution's name was changed from the Humanities Research Center to the Harry Ransom Center.[17]

Notable collections
Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras (c. 1826) is on permanent display in the main lobby

Two prominent items in the Ransom Center's collections are a Gutenberg Bible[18][19] (one of only 21 complete copies known to exist) and Nicéphore Niépce's c. 1826 View from the Window at Le Gras, the first successful permanent photograph from nature. Both of these objects are on permanent display in the main lobby.

Beyond these, the Center houses many culturally important documents and artifacts. Particular strengths include modern literature, performing arts,[20] and photography.[21] Besides the Gutenberg Bible and the photograph, notable holdings include:

Literature
George L. Aiken's original manuscript for his stage adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852. From the George C. Howard and Family Collection, Harry Ransom Center.[22]

Theatre and performing arts

Film and television

Art

History

References
  1. "About: Harry Ransom Center". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  2. "Annual Report 2015-2016" (PDF). Harry Ransom Center. 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2017.
  3. Edward Alexander Parsons Collection
  4. T. Edward Hanley Library
  5. Normal Bel Geddes Theater and Industrial Design Papers
  6. Lewis, Anne S. (September 10, 2012). "Normal Bel Geddes, Harry Ransom Center, Future Perfect exhibition". Wall Street Journal.
  7. Carlton Lake brief bio from "New Directions" Carlton Lake (1915–2006) was the Paris art critic for the Christian Science Monitor.
  8. Aldine Press Archived 2013-02-27 at the Wayback Machine Giorgio Uzielli was a New York stockbroker and book collector, born in Florence, Italy. After a 1982 visit to the Harry Ransom Center, he wrote into his will a bequest to the Center of his 287 books printed by the Aldine Press in Venice in the 15th and 16th centuries. Uzielli's gift was appraised at about $2 million.
  9. Carl H. Pforzheimer Library
  10. "Ernest Lehman Collection". Archived from the original on 2005-03-18. Retrieved 2013-01-27.
  11. Director Thomas F. Staley: Major Acquisitions and Achievements
  12. Woodward and Bernstein Watergate Papers
  13. "Stephen Enniss appointed new director of Ransom Center" Archived 2014-01-04 at the Wayback Machine, Harry Ransom Center.
  14. "The Remains of the Papers"
  15. "Harry Ransom Center Acquires Arthur Miller Archive"
  16. "Ian McEwan's literary archive bought by Harry Ransom Center"
  17. "About: Harry Ransom Center". University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2020-05-03.
  18. Gutenberg Bible, permanent exhibit at HRC
  19. Luxist.com: The World of Rare Books: The Gutenberg Bible, First and Most Valuable Archived 2013-04-10 at the Wayback Machine
  20. Performing Arts - Harry Ransom Center
  21. Photography - Harry Ransom Center
  22. "George C. (George Cunnibell) Howard and Family: An Inventory of Their Collection at the Harry Ransom Center". norman.hrc.utexas.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-15.
  23. Vertuno, Jim. "Don Draper and 'Mad Men' archive land at University of Texas". Statesman. Austin, Texas. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017.

Sources

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