University of Virginia Library

GIFT OF CLIFTON WALLER BARRETT LIBRARY

The President reported on the recent gift of Mr. Clifton Waller Barrett of his collection on
American Literature to Alderman Library. Following this report, the President proposed and the Board
adopted the following resolution

RESOLVED by the Board of Visitors of The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia that
the President convey to Mr. Clifton Waller Barrett both our corporate thanks for his gift of The Barrett
Library, which was dedicated and opened to use on 30 April 1960, and a sense of our individual admiration
for and pride in him as Alumnus and educator.

Like our Founder and first Rector, whose last day at the University was spent overseeing the cataloguing
of the books he had purchased for it, Mr. Barrett has dedicated himself with single-minded devotion
to the assembling of great books as the indispensable foundation of a great University

Hailed by the press as the largest gift ever received by the University during the lifetime of
the donor, The Barrett Library is in fact made priceless as a result of this donor's quarter century
of creative work for the sake of his beloved University

Not money alone, but industry and wisdom have made Mr. Barrett's collection of books and manuscripts
without a superior in the field of American Literature. Fittingly, this library is now housed
beside the McGregor Library of books and manuscripts in American History, for these two collections
make the University of Thomas Jefferson a true center for American Studies.

RESOLVED, FURTHER, that we individually salute Mr. Barrett with esteem and with respect. May his
great and still-growing collection indeed become the "seed pearl" for library growth that shall in
time give the University the materials needed for similar distinction in English literature and in
other areas of human experience and knowledge

RESOLVED, FURTHER, that a copy of this resolution be sent to Mr. Barrett, to the Editor of
the Alumni News, and to the Trustees of the McGragor Fund.