Alumnus is curator of library's new exhibition on Wordsworth

An 1831 engraving of a portrait of Wordsworth by renowned artist Benjamin Robert Haydon is in the Wordsworth exhibition in the Kroch Library gallery, beginning Feb. 7. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections

Cornell University Library's new exhibition, "Wordsworth and the Romantic Imagination: A Scholar's Collection," showcases the collection and research of alumnus Paul F. Betz. The exhibition in the Carl A. Kroch Library gallery opens Monday, Feb. 7, with a talk by Betz titled "Collecting Wordsworth" at 4 p.m., followed by a reception at 5 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

Betz, A.M. '63, Ph.D. '65, first became interested in collecting material relating to the life and times of William Wordsworth when he was a graduate student at Cornell. In the 35 years since, he has amassed a vast and fascinating collection of books, manuscripts and other rare material by and about the famous English poet.

A professor of English at Georgetown University, Betz is recognized today as a noted Wordsworth scholar and has made several important gifts to Cornell Library's renowned Wordsworth collection.

Betz modestly describes his as a "scholar's collection," a term which is not always complimentary and connotes, in his words, "battered, much-read books with indifferent bindings, tattered manuscripts and ill-assorted leaves containing scribbled drafts rather than elegant fair copies." However, visitors to the gallery will discover 78 of his treasures, each with an intriguing history. As Betz explains, he chose the items to be exhibited "at least in part, to allow me to draw at will from the pictures, manuscripts, letters and printed materials in my collection, in the hope that viewers of the exhibition and readers of the catalog will find the result to be interesting and thought-provoking."

The exhibition includes such unique items as a fragment of carved limestone from the ruins of Tintern Abbey, immortalized by Wordsworth in his famous poem; a beautiful 1831 engraving of a portrait of Wordsworth by the renowned artist Benjamin Robert Haydon; a textbook used by Wordsworth as a child; and a bottle of laudanum. Although some items from Betz's collection have been exhibited at Bucknell University and at the University of Maryland, many of the materials in the Cornell Library exhibition never before have been displayed in public.

Betz was invited to organize the exhibition for Cornell by University Librarian Sarah Thomas, who linked the origins of Cornell's own outstanding Wordsworth collection with the zeal and scholarship of Betz as a modern collector. Thomas said, "Cornell's Wordsworth collection effectively demonstrates how the passion and acumen of collectors benefits the scholarly community and how the assiduous work of scholars validates the work of impassioned collectors. In Paul F. Betz, the energies of the collector and those of the scholar find perfect symbiosis."

Betz has chosen the occasion of the exhibition to donate several items from his private collection to Cornell in honor of three of his mentors in the English department: emeritus professors Stephen M. Parrish and M.H. "Mike" Abrams and the late George Healey.

"Wordsworth and the Romantic Exhibition" will be on display until May 30. The gallery, located in Cornell Library's Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections on Level 2B of the Kroch Library, is open Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. and Saturday 1-5 p.m. (The gallery will be closed Saturdays, March 18 and 25, during the university's spring break.)

For more information about the exhibition and/or the accompanying catalog, contact Lorna Knight, curator of manuscripts, at 255-3530 or lmk22@cornell.edu.