ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO LIBRARIES COLLECTIONS

The Poetry Collection

Devoted to 20th century poetry in English and English translation, The Poetry Collection contains over 100,000 first edition volumes by poets writing in English, chapbooks, broadsides, 5,000 runs of little literary magazines, as well as recordings, poets’ notebooks, letters, and other manuscripts. Of particular note are extensive manuscript holdings of Robert Graves, Wyndham Lewis, Robert Duncan, Helen Adam, William Carlos Williams, Robert Kelly, Theodore Enslin, Clark Coolidge, Michael Palmer, John Logan, John Montague and others. The Poetry Collection also holds the archives of the Jargon Society, Alcherina, the Wormwood Review, Kayak, Mica, the Lost and Found Times, White Pine Press, Earth’s Daughters and the archives of the Hallwalls and CEPA galleries, among many, many others. The Poetry Collection also holds one of the world’s premier collections of James Joyce manuscripts. It contains manuscripts, family portraits, Joyce’s private library and thousands of pages of corrected manuscripts and dozens of notebooks used in Joyce’s composition of Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.

For more information visit The Poetry Collection or contact James Maynard.

The University Archives

Among the rich and varied collections housed in University Archives are many collections of papers of UB humanities professors. Faculty from Philosophy are particularly well represented by the Marvin Farber papers on philosophy and phenomenology, ca. 1920s-1980s; the Mitchell Franklin papers, 1922-1986; the Dale Riepe papers, 1937-1980; the Peter H. Hare papers, 1968-1999 and the Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: papers of Peter Hare (ed.), 1971-2002; the George F. Hourani Papers, 1927-1984; the William T. Parry papers, 1919-1984; and the Thomas D. Perry Papers, 1957-1982. Other notable collections include: the Leslie A. Fiedler Papers, 1951-1969; the Milton Plesur papers, 1970-1985 and the papers of Charles David Abbott, 1930-1961. Among the unique collections relating to Buffalo and Western New York architecture are the Frank Lloyd Wright – Darwin Martin House and Graycliff collections. These collections include correspondence, photographs, and architectural drawings related to the design, construction, and use of WNY structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Of additional interest to the work of Wright are the Jaroslav Joseph Polivka papers concerning Frank Lloyd Wright, 1945-1959. Other thematic collections focus on campus unrest and social activism, environmental issues such as Love Canal, and religious groups, particularly the Jewish Archives of Greater Buffalo Collection.

For more information visit The University Archives or contact lib-archives@buffalo.edu

The Rare Books Collection

The University at Buffalo ‘s Rare Books Collection houses more than 20,000 titles. The foundation of this collection rests upon the library of Thomas B. Lockwood. The Rare Books Collection also includes the Goldsman Collection of Literature for Boys, which contains more than 500 books and magazines from the period 1890-1920; and other specialized collections such as the Julian Park Collection; the Gran Colombia Collection; the Joseph Brennan Collection; the Frank A. Hartman Ornithology Collection; and the George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection.

The George Kelley Paperback and Pulp Fiction Collection contains well over 25,000 pulp-fiction books and magazines. The earliest titles date from the 1940s. The collection contains hundreds of paperbacks from this period, and thousands from the 1950s and 1960s. Many of these never appeared in hardcover. The remaining titles are paperback originals published in the 1970s and 1980s. Detective and mystery stories make up the largest part of the collection, followed by science fiction paperbacks and magazines. Dr. Kelley, an alumnus of the State University of New York at Buffalo, donated the collection to the University Libraries in 1994.

For more information about the Rare Books Collection contact lib-archives@buffalo.edu

The Music Library

Among the collections housed in the Music Library are archives of materials related to 20th-century composers Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, Allen Sapp, and Leo Smit, as well as other UB faculty members including Jan Williams and Yvar Mikhashoff.  The  Archive of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts, 1964-1980, contains documents, letters and working files from this center of new music activity. Other special collections of interest include a large collection of manuscripts and first editions of works by Fernando Päer (1771-1839), a collection of more than three hundred holographs of composer Ferdinand Praeger (1815-1891), and 5,000 antiquarian catalogs of musical interest.

For more information visit the special collections and archives in the UB Music Library or contact musique@buffalo.edu.

Robert L. Brown History of Medicine Collection

Established in 1972, the Robert L. Brown History of Medicine Collection houses print and non-print historical materials representing medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, nursing, public health and the health professions.  Within the more than 11,000 titles of books is an extensive nineteenth century collection with particular strengths in the subjects of anatomy, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pharmacology, dentistry, and oncology.   There are also more 500 pre-nineteenth century titles and books from the twentieth century.  Other materials such as yearbooks and catalogs relate to the history of the School of Medicine and the other health sciences schools at the University.  There are also books, journals and other resources that document the rich history of medicine and the health sciences in Buffalo and Western New York.

Within the History of Medicine are two special collections:

The superb Bonnie and Vern Bullough History of Nursing Collection includes works by and about Florence Nightingale and American nursing leaders as well as nursing texts published before 1900.

The Edgar R. McGuire Historical Medical Instrument Collection, established in 1985, is a non-print treasure containing more than 200 instruments, sets of instruments and artifacts that illustrate the history and evolution of the technology of medicine and the health sciences.  The contents range from microscopes, surgical instruments and anatomical models to dental instruments, leech jars and baby bottles.

For further information visit the Robert L. Brown History of Medicine website or contact Keith Mages.

The Polish Collection

The strengths of this 12,000-volume collection are in literature and history, but the genealogical literature and the language sections are very strong for a collection of this size. In addition to the book collection, the Polish Collection possesses a number of unique materials, which include 21 manuscripts of the Polish kings from the 16th to 18th centuries, and letters and other signed documents of important people of the 20th century, including writers such as: Stefan Zeromski, Maria Konopnicka, and Maria Dabrowska. There are also two rare and valuable Polish books. In other formats, the Polish Room has more than 100 videorecordings, including Polish commercial and art films, opera and theater productions, and a number of audiotapes of Polish literary works. There are a few Solidarnosc documents and 135 underground press books on microfiche, part of the Solidarnosc fiche collection assembled at Harvard University. Also on microfiche are the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty background reports on Poland from 1967 to 1989. A microfilm collection of immigrant publications comprises part of the Immigrant in America collection. Additional materials on Poland and Polish Americans are available in the general Lockwood Memorial Library collections.

For more information visit About the Polish Room or contact library@buffalo.edu.