At President Eliot's ninetieth birthday celebration on March 20, 1924, a fund was given by graduates for the purpose of purchasing a collection of books for the Widener Library. The annual income of this fund of about $7700 is used in accordance with President Eliot's wishes, as expressed in a letter written in September, 1924, for books on the following subjects:

The history of education; the progress of American science since 1790; democratic government in the world since the battle of Magenta; the endowment method for institutions of education and charity in the United States; toleration in religion and religious unity in the United States; and individual pioneering in regard to social and political problems.

President Eliot added: "Knowing the difficulties of observing with precision over a long period of restrictions of a definite or detailed character especially as regards the purchase of books, I should expect that some latitude would be used in interpreting the scope of each of the subjects specified, and I should also prefer to regard these subjects as suggestive rather than mandatory."

The above is a reproduction of the bookplate which marks the volumes already purchased from the income of the fund. The design was drawn by S. L. Smith of Boston.