Cornell acquires private library's historic Native American collection

By Linda Myers

On June 15 at the Huntington Free Library's red brick home in the Bronx, N.Y., papers were signed to transfer the library's Native American collection -- one of the largest in the world -- to Cornell Library.

The $2.5 million that Cornell is giving the Huntington library in return will allow the private library to remedy losses from a 15-year lawsuit over the ownership of the collection and return to its main mission of serving the Bronx community through its other collections.

University Librarian Sarah Thomas displays one of the historic documents from the Native American collection of the Huntington Free Library in the Bronx, following the signing June 15 at the Huntington library of an agreement to transfer the collection to Cornell. Rob Maass

The actual moving of the collection to Cornell, which will take place later this summer, will ensure that the collection stays in New York and remains accessible to students and researchers as well as the general public. The collection contains more than 40,000 volumes on the archaeology, ethnology and history of the native peoples of the Americas from the colonial period to the present. Appraised at $8.3 million in 2001, the collection will be fully cataloged at Cornell Library, with online records made available in national and international bibliographic databases. Over the coming years, Cornell Library also plans to digitize and make available on the Web some 1,300 rare books and monographs as well as approximately 100,000 pages of the Huntington's manuscript holdings.

Sarah E. Thomas, Cornell University Librarian, and Edward Morgan, Huntington Free Library president, both spoke about the significance of the transfer to media and friends of the library at a reception following the signing this Tuesday.

"We are delighted that the Huntington has entrusted Cornell with this invaluable collection," said Thomas. "These spectacular historic materials will complement and significantly augment our current Native American holdings. And Cornell Library's deep infrastructure and cutting-edge expertise in digital libraries will ensure the preservation of print materials and the broad dissemination of important materials from the collection through Internet access."

"We at the Huntington Free Library are thrilled at the completion of this transfer of our Native American collection to Cornell University," said Edward A. Morgan, the Huntington library's president. "This transfer marks the beginning of a new and promising era for us."

The transfer provides closure to lengthy litigation in state and federal courts over ultimate ownership of the Native American collection, said Morgan. The Huntington Free Library was officially founded in 1892 by Collis P. Huntington, a Southern Pacific Railroad magnate. In 1930 the Huntington library received the Native American collection from the Museum of the American Indian, then located in New York City, and agreed to care for it and make it available to the public, scholars and museum staff. But in 1990, when the Museum of the American Indian was absorbed by the National Museum of the American Indian, which was part of the Smithsonian Institution, the Smithsonian assumed that the Huntington library's Native American library collection would accompany the American Indian museum's artifacts collections. A lawsuit followed, during which the Huntington Free Library fought to protect its ownership of the collection and other rights to it. Although the Huntington ultimately won all key New York and federal court decisions, including appeals court rulings in 1994 and January 2004, the litigation nearly ruined it financially. The transfer of the collection to Cornell will remedy the losses and help the library return to its mission: serving the Bronx community, said Morgan.

Why did the Huntington choose Cornell as its new steward? "We believe the Huntington was looking for a new home that would embrace its Native American collection as a living, vibrant resource for learning and research," said Katherine Reagan, curator of rare books in Cornell Library's Rare and Manuscript Collections, who, along with other library staff members, was present at the historic signing. "The strengths of the Cornell Library and its staff, the university's long history of outreach and collaboration with local Native American communities and the eagerness of the Cornell faculty to work with the collection, we think, made a difference."

Jane Mt. Pleasant, associate professor and director of Cornell's American Indian Program, said: "The collection provides enormously rich materials for teaching and research and will enable us to attract outstanding scholars from across the hemispheres." Eric Cheyfitz, professor of English and American studies at Cornell, said: "This rich collection will help us understand the histories of the Americas, which we are continually in the process of writing and re-writing." And Jon Parmenter, Cornell assistant professor of history, said: "All of the faculty associated with Cornell's American Indian Program are thrilled that the collection will soon arrive in Ithaca. We look forward to building a greater awareness of the historical experience of the Western Hemisphere's indigenous peoples through the use of the collection's splendid and unique resources."

The collection is "full of treasures," Reagan said. Highlights include early printed books on travel and exploration, with accounts of encounters with native peoples; rare dictionaries of Native American languages; original drawings of American Indians by the artist George Catlin; field notes by 19th century ethnographers and papers of archaeological expeditions; a German prince's account of travels in North America's interior -- considered one the finest early 19th century works on American Indian life; a 1765 original manuscript peace treaty between the Delaware Nation and Britain's superintendent of Indian affairs; and records of the Women's National Indian Association.