University of Virginia Library

Manuscripts: Eight Million Relics Of Days Past

By CONRAD GAARDER

As one steps out of the
elevator onto floor number
two, the Manuscripts
Department at Alderman
Library greets you with its
familiar glass boxes displaying
bizarre relics of by-gone days
and one thinks "this must be
Ripley's."

Tucked neatly away two
floors beneath the hustle and
bustle of the main lobby of
Alderman Library are eight and
a half million historical and
literary manuscripts which are
tenderly cared for by Curator
Edmund Berkeley Jr. and his
assistants.

The sweet life of taking care
of Berkeley's "8½" sours only
occasionally as the staff
anguishes over finding space
for the growing collection.
(Remember the little game
with the movable numbered
squares you had to arrange in
order? Remember how hard it
was to get the 20 down to the
bottom corner) Comfort can
be found, however, in the
thought that as the collection
grows, there's more of it to
love.

On the morning I saw him
to discuss some new additions,
the very hospitable Mr.
Berkeley had an appointment
with Virginius Dabney at
10:30, but he was still quite
eager to explain how
Manuscripts worked, and gave
me a private tour of the area.

Mr. Berkeley noted that the
library possesses one of the
finest collections of American
literary manuscripts, and that
they are heavily used. "The
library has the best Faulkner
manuscript collection besides
John Dos Passos's own
archive', he said.

Eight Million Documents

Eight million historical
manuscripts take up the bulk
of the collection which reflects
the departments primary area
of interest. Documents related
to Virginia social and political
history are most sought after.

CD/Arthur Laurent

Curator Edmund Berkeley, Jr. Admires One Of His '8½'.

"We have a very good
collection of Virginia political
documents from the Byrd era
to the present, with a gap from
1870 to 1900. Now we are
trying to track down the heirs
to manuscripts of the period,"
said Mr. Berkeley.

How does the curator
decide what is of historical
interest? "We try to be very
careful not to prejudge what
future historians will find
valuable. We should not make
historical judgments... but we
have to try to anticipate what
researchers will want in the
next few years," he answered.

Not Tax Free

Most of the papers in the
collection are donated. In the
past, donors received a
compensation for their
contributions through tax
write-offs. Mr. Berkeley
explained that presently an
author can't take a tax
deduction for donations of
works he has created himself.
"The tax write-offs of this sort
went out with the Tax Reform
Act, which, by the way, some
say was aimed at L.B.J. and his
Texas library. That hurt our
collecting program," he said.
The Department of
Manuscripts now takes many
things on loan, hoping that the
law will change and the loaners
will be able to profitably
donate the material.

Manuscripts uses
professional appraisers and
various dealer catalogs to
place a value on any document
or letter. For instance, if you
have in your possession an old
piece of foolscape with
Thomas Jefferson's John
Hancock on it, it could be
worth up to $125. And if you
are so fortunate as to possess
an entire letter the going rate is
$3,000. Presently, Mr.
Berkeley is trying to persuade
the Virginia Medical Society to
purchase a letter written by
Jefferson to a young doctor
asking him to come to
Charlottesville to set up
practice.

Mr. Berkeley lamented that
the old-time donors are dying
out. In the past, wealthy,
elderly people donated many
things. Their children,
however, don't tend to be as
prosperous, and therefore
prefer to sell their items. "We
try, of course, to persuade
them to donate, and in that
sense there's a lot of
salesmanship to this job. Since
we don't have much money,
we have to sell our program,
and make the person believe
that if he gives his things to the
University of Virginia Library,
we'll do a first-class job
protecting them."

Rare and unusual relics are
often discovered in the most
unusual places. "The most
surprising things turn up in
Virginia attics practically every
week," said Mr. Berkeley as
he recalled how "... the first
archivist at the University had
heard of a man out in the
country who had some leager
books piled up in an old shed
next to an abandoned mill. He
began going through them and
found $600 in Civil War
Greenbacks neatly tucked
between the pages."

On another occasion, while
rummaging through boxes of
old letters and papers in
someone's attic, fistfulls of
Victorian jewelry were found
among "junk" which had been
stored away and forgotten by
the family.

Part Time Teamster

Many interesting papers are
given by people who have no
use for them and are happy to
have them hauled away. A
phone call or a letter can send
Mr. Berkeley or an assistant
driving off in a rented truck as
far as New England to "bring it
all back home."

Sometimes, material is not
wanted simply because it is of
little interest to the University,
and would be of much greater
value in another part of the
country. In one case, a couple
from Fredericksburg had a
collection of Civil War letters
addressed to someone in New
York by a Union soldier
fighting in Virginia. The
Department of Manuscripts
tried to persuade the couple to
donate them to a New York
university, but they insisted
that Virginia receive them. "So
we took them thinking it more
important that the stuff survive
here than for it to be burned
by an angry would-be donor,"
said Mr. Berkeley.

The University's collection
of manuscripts, which has
begun in the 1930's, was
among the 10 largest university
collections by 1960, according
to Mr. Berkeley. Today, the
department is very nearly out
of space and the problem of
fitting things in becomes
greater every year. The
personal papers of two
prominent Virginia politicians
have been given to the library
within the last six months,
worsening the shelving
situation.

But the search continues for
more material, as the curator's
powers of persuasion are
brought to bear on potential
donors, great and small. The
acquisition of the Harry F.
Byrd Sr. papers in March,
1971, was not only a valuable
addition in itself, but also
attracted other donations, both
from lesser politicians seeking
to have their inter-office
memos enshrined along with
those of the Great Man, and
Byrd opponents intent on
battling the old goat for equal
time in the stacks.

Films, Tape Collection

Apart from the
manuscripts, the department is
building a collection of films
and tapes. F.D.R.'s address
delivered at the graduation

exercises of his son in 1941
and many of William
Faulkner's lectures are among
the tapes on file.

In addition to these, as
everyone knows, there are the
many weird "things"
Manuscripts has hoarded. Many
of these are donated along with
more important paper matter
and, in some cases, cannot be
legally disposed of Hence, they
accumulate.

Mr. Berkeley is looking
forward to the construction of
a separate building for a
Special Objects collection.
Among these "objects" are
found dozens of Chinese seals
(these don't swim; they're the
kind you print with. Some are
very beautiful and weigh up to
twelve pounds), a Churchill
cigar, William Faulkner's
typewriter, and all those stale
locks of hair. (Rumor has it
that the University of Michigan
has requested that Manuscripts
Department donate old locks
from their hair collection for a
comparative pollution study.)

All these and many more
oddities await you in this
depository of the strange and
the bizarre. And it all keeps on
"growing."

Manuscripts is also a unique
place to take your date. Next
to the elevator you'll find an
army sword carried in the
Spanish-American War, which
can be made to elevate by
pressing down upon the front
edge of the glass case as you
utter the command: "Arise, O
sword!" to the amazement of
your sweetie.

So whether you prefer to
spend hours rummaging
through curiosities, or years
poring over original works, the
Manuscripts Department is a
place every student should
discover.