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The Associates of the Boston Public Library is proud to manage the David McCullough Conservation Fund, established in 2001 to provide a consistent source of funding for the restoration and preservation of books, manuscripts, works of art and historic documents in the Library's Rare Books and Special Collections. The Fund is named after historian David McCullough, who during his tenure as a Boston Public Library Trustee (1995-2000), became convinced of the growing need to conserve the Library's many irreplaceable treasures. Not so incidentally, Mr. McCullough made extensive use of the Library's Special Collections while writing his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography John Adams published in 2001 and subsequently 1776, published in 2005. The John Adams Presidential Library of over 3500 volumes is housed at the BPL (the only presidential library in the nation to be at a public library) and was showcased at a recent exhibition.
In honor of David McCullough and to raise funds for the McCullough Fund, the Associates sponsored a “Dinner Party with David McCullough” on Wednesday evening, September 20, 2006. The Champagne reception took place in the Changing Exhibits Gallery where John Adams’s Presidential Library was on display and the Dinner Party followed in the Edwin Austin Abbey Room. David McCullough spoke passionately on the need to fight the ravages of time by restoring the nation’s treasures. To date, the dinner and related contributions have raised over $300,000, the largest initiative ever undertaken by the Associates.
Buoyed by this success, the Associates is dedicated more than ever to create events and opportunities and to launch projects to raise awareness and fascination in its mission - to achieve a substantial endowment and restoration goal.
Now standing at over $800,000, the David McCullough Conservation Fund is invested for growth and has also contributed to the conservation and restoration of several important projects. $30,000 was donated in 2002 for the complete repair and restoration of John Adams's Personal Atlas. Published in Paris in 1778, the Atlas measures 22” by 17” and contains 78 maps of North America, 21 of which are enhanced with watercolor, and nine of which fold out to become from two to five times bigger.
Additionally, the Associates recently pledged over $10,000 for the restoration of an extraordinary medieval illuminated scroll measuring 30 feet long by 20 inches wide, entitled “La Chronique Universalle,” ca. 1440. The scroll, one of the BPL’s finest treasures and probably the finest example in the world, is made from 16 skins of parchment, and depicts sacred and secular events from the beginning of the world to 1440. It was featured at an Associates members’ reception and at the Secular/ Sacred exhibition in conjunction with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College.
The Associates is also pleased to have sponsored the restoration of the Gutenberg “Catholicon” (Gutenberg's Big Dictionary), published in 1460 (of the eleven copies of this work known to exist in the U.S., the BPL's copy is the only one printed on vellum); Ptolemy’s “Cosmographia” (Atlas of the World) printed in 1511; Boethius's Arithmetica; a scrapbook of “The Star Spangled Banner” by J. Hewitt, published in New York in 1818; the wooden plaque that adorned the Adams Library in Quincy; and purchased a letter from Samuel Cooper to George Washington sent during the American Revolution
Through the Associates’ recent Adopt-a-Book program, more than $50,000 has been pledged by individuals to restore dozens of specific treasures in both the Adams Collection and the Special Collections of the Library. For a listing of “adoptions” already pledged or a list of emergency “adoptions” needed, please contact the Associates Office.
Technically speaking, many books, engravings and lithographs printed on acidic paper, for example, are now turning brown and becoming extremely brittle. These artifacts will literally crumble to dust if they are not treated by conservators. Similarly, maps and manuscripts subjected to environmental pollutants, radical changes in temperature and improper storage over many years are now often too fragile to be opened, let alone used. This problem blatantly defies the BPL’s mission of Free to All.
Some items of special interest and considered especially vulnerable (and available for “adoption”) are:
- The Peabody and Stearns Collection of architectural drawings. There are 34,000 drawings in the collection, 2,529 of which need treatment by a conservator. The venerable Boston firm is best known for its creation of the Custom House Tower.
- To the People of the United States of America, the Friendly Remonstrance of the People of Scotland on the Subject of Slavery (ca. 1850), a manuscript petition and one of the most remarkable components of the BPL’s unrivaled collection of anti-slavery material, the largest in the United States and perhaps the world desperately needs conservation.
- D. Dapper, Description exacte des isles de l'Archipel...Chypre, Rhodes, Candie, Samos, etc. (Amsterdam, 1703), an illuminated tour guide, was originally designed to fascinate the "Grand Tourist" at the height of the Grand Tour tradition.
- A Sumptuous Plate Book of the 18th-Century Commedia Dell’arte by Gerard Xavery (Het Italjannasch tooneel voortresselyk in 16 verbeeldingen), an extremely rare book published at a time when the Commedia dell'Arte was reaching its greatest moment of fame and popularity.
- Sir Walter Raleigh, The History of the World in Five Books (London, 1677). This seminal history of the ancient world was largely composed by Queen Elizabeth's favorite, Sir Walter Raleigh, during his 13 years of close imprisonment in the Tower of London after the Queen's death.
- Hebrew manuscript scroll on vellum, ca. 1550. This text, referred to by rabbis as “The Volume of Esther” or, more simply, as “The Volume (Hebrew, magilla), was written down somewhere in Europe during the middle decades of the sixteenth century.
- The Harry Houdini Scrapbook is a marvelous item assembled by a close friend of the magician, and includes many letters signed by Houdini, announcements of appearances, press clippings, photographs, news stories, and other memorabilia.
- “The English Pilot, Book Four” was printed in London in 1775 for J. Mount, T. Page, and W. Mount on Tower Hill. Part of the John Adams collection, this oversized volume describes navigation from Hudson's Bay to the River Amazones.
If the McCullough Fund is to meet the growing needs of the Library, it must evolve into an endowment which can generate annual income of at least $50,000 per year. Substantial donations will be required to achieve this objective particularly since restoration funds are withdrawn upon occasion. Despite the softening of the economy, the Associates believes that this goal is attainable if all those who believe in the Library and its importance in our democratic society support and become dedicated to this important initiative.
Those wishing to do so can send checks payable to The David McCullough Conservation Fund to the Associates of the Boston Public Library, 700 Boylston Street, Boston 02116. Contributions at all levels are welcome. All are fully tax deductible. You may also contribute online:
Associates
of the Boston Public Library
700 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02116
Phone: 617-536-3886
Fax: 617-536-3813
e-mail: associates@bpl.org
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A sampling of David McCullough Conservation Fund accomplishments:
- restoration of John Adams's personal atlas
- restoration of the Gutenberg "Catholicon"
- funding of “A Guide to the Sargent Murals” by art historian Sally Promey
- repair of 35-foot by 24-inch medieval illuminated scroll, ca. 1440
- purchase of a Revolutionary letter to George Washington from Samuel Cooper
- repair of John Adams Library plaque
- restoration of “Boethius's Arithmetica”
- purchase of the Macmonnies "Bacchante" maquette
- purchase of modern display cases for the BPL Changing Exhibits Room
In the Music Department, the following materials, among others, have been conserved:
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Dreistimmige Fuge. Autograph manuscript
- Franz Schubert. Der Geistertanz. Autograph manuscript
- Dmitri Shostakovich. Lady of Mtensk. Sketch. Autograph manuscript.
- 7 volumes of American music autograph manuscripts, including: Dudley Buck, George Chadwick, George Whiting, etc.
- Sebastian Virdung. Musica Getutscht. Basel , 1511. One of 17 extant copies of the first book on musical instruments in the vernacular. This volume is a unicum. The only copy which is a contemporary watercolor.
- Jacques Offenbach. Voyage de la Lune. Vocal score containing the script and original costume designs. Also contains correspondence concerning the first performance of the opera.
- George Chadwick. Third String Quartet. Autograph manuscript.
Library
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