EMORY COLLEGE.
Emory College library records, 1846-1936

Restrictions on Access

Unrestricted access.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Related Materials in This Repository

General Libraries records (Series 22) and Emory College student organization records (Series 49).

Source

Transfer

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Emory College library records, Emory University Archives, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Processing

Processed by Nancy Hall Watkins, 2006.

Administrative History

Emory College was chartered in 1836 to the Georgia Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1914, it was rechartered as Emory University.

The first librarian noted in Emory College records, in 1840, was George W. Lane, the professor of ancient languages. The college library played little part in the early history of Emory College and was described in a later history of the university as consisting of "the miscellaneous gatherings of deceased Methodist preachers." Few faculty or students used the library, which had no regularly scheduled hours. The primary library collections were in the possession of the college's two literary societies, Phi Gamma and Few, organized in the first three years of the college's existence. In 1860, the two societies between them owned something over 4000 volumes, while the college library contained fewer than 2000 volumes. The college was closed during the Civil War, when buildings were used as hospitals, and on its reopening in 1866, the holdings of the small library were found to have been largely scattered and lost.

The first serious attention to the library came under the presidency of Atticus Greene Haygood, a graduate in the class of 1859 and later agent for the Slater Fund to aid African-American education. Through the benefaction of a Northern philanthropist, George Seney (an admirer of Haygood), Seney Hall was built (1883) to house college offices, provide classrooms, and give space for the college library. There, for the first time, the library collection, could be shelved in an orderly arrangement and made available every day in the week. Finally, in 1897, the cornerstone was laid for a separate library building, Candler Hall. Shortly after Candler Hall opened, the literary societies transferred their collections to the library and in 1908 the college received its first book endowment, the John W. Akin fund devoted to English literature, with a gift of $5,000. By 1915, when the Methodist Church, South, at the urging of Bishop Warren Candler, determined to establish a Methodist university in Atlanta, the college library showed a count of 41,000 volumes.

Scope and Content Note

The collection is chiefly of records of the Emory College library related to acquisition, accession, and circulation of books and periodicals. There are also library catalogs and shelf lists noting the location of materials. The collection also includes a few volumes related to the libraries of the Few Literary Society and Phi Gamma literary society, to specific library collections, and to Emory University Library.

Arrangement Note

Arranged by material type.