Missionaries, Merchants, and Movable Type: Collectors and Collections of the C.V. Starr East Asian Library

Description:

Missionary zeal took John Fryer to China in the 1860s. When he arrived in Berkeley thirty years later, a convert to the gospel of science and education, he brought his personal library with him, ultimately bequeathing it to the university. In the days before the institution of a regular program for the acquisition of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean materials, gifts such as Fryer’s and the occasional special purchase were vital to building a working collection for the use of faculty and students. Demands on the collection grew with the expansion of the East Asian studies program in the middle of the twentieth century. In response, the newly established East Asiatic (later “East Asian”) Library made two of the most significant purchases in its history: the 8,850 volumes of Meiji first editions comprising the Murakami collection; and 100,000 items from the library of the Mitsui clan, founders of one of Japan’s leading industrial and commercial groups. The Mitsui acquisition encompassed a number of smaller collections, of Japanese manuscripts, maps, and “sleeve-sized” books, of Chinese literature, Japanese ephemera, and Chinese rubbings. It also included Asami Rintarō’s collection of early Korean manuscripts, xylographs, and moveable-type printing. Although the library has long had a robust acquisitions program—EAL staff placed close to 12,000 orders last year alone—these gifts and collections have enriched the library’s holdings in ways not anticipated, never duplicated, and always unique, reflecting the interests and idiosyncrasies of their original owners.

Attribution:

Debbie Roudolph

Date:

2007