The College Library has received from Mrs. Edward Brandegee of Brookline the largest collection of books which has been presented since the Library's foundation. The collection is to be known as the Weld Memorial, in memory of Mrs. Brandegee's grandfather, William Fletcher Weld, the donor of Weld Hall. The collection, consisting of 11,880 volumes, is from the library of Richard H. Bowie of Philadelphia. There is no room in Gore Hall at present for such a great number of books, and they are stored temporarily in the basement of one of the College dormitories.
Nearly half of the collection consists of the works of classical Greek and Latin authors, mainly in eighteenth century editions of great value. In the Bowie catalogue there were listed 433 books printed before 1500, the work of 160 different printers. This addition more than doubles the former collection of such books, and probably gives the College Library the largest number of these early works of any public library in the country. Next to the classics in numbers come the works of the mediaeval Latin writers. There are also many standard works in French and English, as well as numerous curious and rare volumes.
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