Jason Koski/University Photography

Anthony Cashen '57, M.B.A. '58, second from right, presented a collection of Negro Universities Press books March 8 to the John Henrik Clarke Africana Library. Shown with Cashen are, from left, professor of history Robert Harris, Cashen's granddaughter Celia Muoser '13, Africana librarian Eric Acree, and associate university librarian John Saylor.

The donation of a collection of more than 200 volumes published by the Negro Universities Press will aid scholarship at Cornell's John Henrik Clarke Africana Library.

The books are a gift to the library from Anthony Cashen '57, M.B.A. '58, and Gail Lautzenheiser Cashen '57.

Anthony Cashen, accompanied by his granddaughter, Celia Muoser '13, presented the books March 8 to librarian Eric Kofi Acree and professor of history Robert Harris at the Africana Studies and Research Center.

The books, 212 in all, were purchased as a collection from a bookstore that was closing in Lake Placid, N.Y., in 2006 after more than 35 years in business, Cashen said.

"High on a group of shelves, I saw all these books. When I saw the spread of what was involved, I thought they would be of interest to Cornell," he said. "I purchased them on the spot."

He then contacted Harris, former director of the Africana Center and vice provost emeritus. Harris had already heard about the collection in Lake Placid from historian Nell Painter, then at Princeton University.

Provided

A bookplate for the new collection in Clarke Library.

"It was absolutely of interest to us," Harris said. "Most of the books are out of print and will make an invaluable addition to our collection."

The Negro Universities Press specialized in bound reprints of historical books, pamphlets and periodicals on the African and African-American experience. The press was founded in 1968 to publish original works by scholars affiliated with more than 100 colleges and universities with a predominately black enrollment, and to reprint in book form materials on the black experience, including speeches and manuscripts, of interest to historians and educators.

The earliest reprint in the collection donated to Cornell dates from 1776, the most recent from 1960, Cashen noted.

Reprint volumes in the collection include "Proceedings of the American Anti-Slavery Society, at its Second Decade" from 1853 and a bound edition of the entire print run of Race, a quarterly journal published in 1935-36.

Acree said the books will be classified by subject matter and integrated throughout the Clarke Library collection. The library will add "special embroidered bookplates so patrons for years to come can see the generous nature" of the Cashens, he said.

With the development of a Ph.D. program in Africana studies under way, "this collection will be a boon to future Ph.D. students doing research, especially research in that time period," Acree said.