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NEW COLLECTION FOR WIDENER

D. B. FEARING '82 WILLED, HIS ENTIRE LIBRARY TO UNIVERSITY.

Under the will of the late Daniel Butler Fearing '82, of Newport, which was filed last summer, the University receives his whole library, including his books on angling, to be kept as a part of the University Library, intact and as a whole. His collection of whaling implements, whaling prints, whaling pictures and scrimshon goes to the Boston Marine Museum. St. Mark's School at Southborough is one of the residuary legatees.

Died May 26.

Mr. Fearing died suddenly while attending a Red Cross meeting in Newport on May 26. Always a man of great vigor aur vitality, he plunged with a will into all forms of war relief work. His most distinguishing characteristic was his active interest in life, an interest indicated by his public offices in Newport and in Rhode Island, by his unrivalled collections of books, and by the long list of clubs with which he was connected. Prominent among the latter was the Crolier Club of New York, of which he was one of the earliest members and a constant and most generous benefactor. Hilast days were spent in editing a catalogue of his collections of angling bookplates which have been on exhibition at the Grolier Club.

Contains Over 12,000 Volumes.

The first books Mr. Fearing gave to the University were the Persius Collection, gathered by him and the late Professor Morris H. Morgan. The two men had been schoolmates at St. Mark's, and after Professor Morgan had got together a fairly large number of Persius, he naturally turned to his friend whose pursuit of angling books had brought him into correspondence with booksellers everywhere.--The result was the largest collection of the sort in America. The present "Fearing Collection" of books on angling was given to the Library, when it first occupied the new Widener Building. It contains over 12,000 volumes in twenty languages, on every subject concerned with anything that lives in the water. Among the books are many rare Americana and incunabula as well as a full representation of editions of Isaak Walton. Both collections are now preserved in the Treasure Room of the Widener Library.

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