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Gift Chronology

2005

• Eden Hall Contributes to the Libraries: $180,000 for Information Literacy for the Region; $500,000 challenge grant to create a $1M endowed Knowledge Renewal Fund.
  
  The Eden Hall Foundation has approved two contributions to the University Libraries at Carnegie Mellon totaling almost $680,000. The foundation is supporting efforts to expand the university's digital library collections and promote information literacy region-wide.
  
  The first grant, of almost $180,000, is for the Information Literacy for the Region project. The foundation's support--for the development of tools to assess and teach information literacy and for outreach partnerships between Carnegie Mellon and several regional libraries--will help a broad population of students and library patrons become skilled and successful life-long learners. "It is a great honor to embark on this work on behalf of our own students and for the benefit of the many students and patrons of the academic and public libraries with which we are creating an important new partnership," Carnegie Mellon President Jared L. Cohon wrote to the foundation in acknowledgment of this gift.
  
  The second award is a challenge grant for the University Libraries' endowed Knowledge Renewal Fund. This pledge facilitates the development of a $1 million fund for ongoing acquisition of digital library resources. To that end, once additional contributions to the fund reach $500,000, the Eden Hall Foundation will provide a matching $500,000. The fund's outcomes will include enhanced resources for students and faculty as well as financial savings for the libraries via advance subscription discounts and other purchasing incentives for high-quality and high-demand digital materials.

2003

• Clifford Glenwood Shull Papers given by sons John C. Shull, Dr. Robert D. Shull and William F. Shull - AIP Grant to preserve the collection; Shull family pledge to fund digitization
  
  Nobel Laureate's Papers to be Digitized
  The university has received the papers of Nobel Laureate Clifford Glenwood Shull (S'37) as a gift from the Shull family, and the University Archives has received $8,000 from the American Institute of Physics to preserve and catalog the collection for research use. The Shull family will fund digitization to put the Clifford Shull Collection online in full-text -- as the Heinz, Newell and Simon archival collections are available today.
  
  In 1994 Shull and Canadian physicist Bertram N. Brockhouse received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their individual work with neutron-scattering techniques. Shull died in March 2001. "The scientific papers of Clifford Shull are a real treasure to have at Carnegie Mellon. Even a brief look at part of the collection gives one an appreciation of the combination of careful, intensive work and clearly stated insights that are essential components of Shull's Nobel Prize-winning research," said Fred Gilman, professor and head of the department of physics. more

2002

• Christine Fiedler O'Connor and Thomas O'Connor - Werner C. Fiedler, Sr., ECE 1948 Memorial Reading Endowment (December)
  
  Endowment Honors Werner C. Fiedler, Sr.
  Christine Fiedler O'Connor and Thomas O'Connor have established a reading materials endowment in memory of Mrs. O'Connor's father, Werner C. Fiedler, Sr., ECE '48. Matched by a gift from Microsoft Corporation, the generous endowment honors Mr. Fiedler's interests as well as his strong avocation for reading by providing additional books and electronic resources in electrical and computer engineering. Two of Mrs. O'Connor's brothers are also Carnegie Mellon alumni: Gary W. Fiedler, IM 1969 and Werner C. Fiedler, Jr., H&SS 1980 & 1985.

• James G. March and Mie Augier - copy of book; book royalities
  
  Book honors Cyert, benefits Archives
  The late Richard Cyert, former Carnegie Mellon president and GSIA professor, is remembered in a new book, "The Economics of Choice, Change and Organization: Essays in Memory of Richard M. Cyert" (Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd., 2002). Editors James G. March and Mie Augier have presented a copy of the book to Carnegie Mellon University Archives and have generously designated all royalties from its sale to the Archives. The book includes essays by William Cooper, Herbert Simon, and many others about Dick Cyert and his work in economics, statistics, organizational models, and change. Editor James March co-authored "A Behavioral Theory of the Firm" with Cyert; he is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. Mie Augier has used the Carnegie Mellon University Archives extensively for research, focusing on the Cyert and Simon Collections; she is a post-doctoral Fellow at Stanford University.

• Carnegie UK Trust - Liber Scriptorum, The First and Second Books of the Authors Club of New York (October)
  
  University Acquires One-Millionth Book
  University Libraries has recently acquired its one-millionth book. The symbolic volume is Liber Scriptorum, The First and Second Books of the Authors Club of New York (1893 and 1921), a pair of limited edition volumes. These books were part of the Carnegie family library at Skibo Castle in Scotland, and are a gift to the university from the Carnegie UK Trust on behalf of Carnegie heirs. The Authors Club of New York, organized in 1882, was a social club for men and a support group for younger writers. Club members contributed original essays, stories or poems to be published in Liber Scriptorum, and then signed their works in each copy of the published book. Andrew Carnegie contributed an essay on poet Robert Burns, "Genius Illustrated from Burns," published in The First Book. The Second Book contains a eulogy written about Carnegie. Both volumes of Liber Scriptorum have been digitized and are on the Web at http://doi.library.cmu.edu/10.1184/OCLC/04613595 and http://doi.library.cmu.edu/10.1184/OCLC/01487370
  
  
• Dr. Marylouise D. Meder (Library'49) History of Books and Printing Endowment (May)
  
  History of Books and Printing Endowment
  Dr. Marylouise D. Meder (L'49) has established a History of Books and Printing endowment, which will provide financial stability and growth potential for collecting fine and rare books in the book arts and graphic design. Dr. Meder's generosity will support with additional acquisitions an already-notable collection at Carnegie Mellon that centers around four significant gifts: Rachel McMasters Miller Hunt's collection on the history of bookmaking and bookbinding; the collections of professors Homer Sterling (printing) and Arnold Bank (calligraphy and graphic design); and the collections of print management student Wilder Bentley (California fine-printing and books created by Carnegie Mellon's Lab Press). In the course of her career as a librarian and professor, Dr. Meder taught the History of Books and Printing for many years.
  
  
• Roy A. Hunt Foundation - $5,000 gift (March)
  

2001

• Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation - grant (July)
  
  Library Receives Grant for History
  The University Libraries are happy to announce receipt of a grant from the Mary Hillman Jennings Foundation. The grant, payable over two years, will be used to purchase books, reference materials and electronic resources in history and anthropology. We appreciate the Foundation's generosity, which will strengthen a deficient undergraduate library collection and, in turn, help support Carnegie Mellon's nationally known history department and its programs.
  
  
• Monica Wilkinson - books given in memory of Dr. Joel Wilkinson (June)
  
  Russian Literature Gift
  The University Libraries are happy to acknowledge a generous gift of books in Russian literature, given in memory of Dr. Joel Wilkinson by his wife, Monica Wilkinson. Dr. Wilkinson earned his doctorate in Russian literature from the University of Kansas. The collection is strong in Russian poetry and folkore, reflecting his early research on the Romantic poet Mikhail Lermontov (perhaps best known in the West for the novel "A Hero of our Time"). Dr. Wilkinson later studied and collected popular and scholarly works published in Russia following World War II and throughout the Cold War years. His library of historically hard-to-get items provides a unique snapshot of the Soviet literary and cultural scene in the mid- to late 20th century, and provides a much-appreciated boost to the modern languages collection housed at Hunt Library. The Wilkinson gift of approximately 1,500 books is valued at almost $5,000.
  
  
• Professor William W. Mullins [d. June 2001]; in memory of June Mullins Fund - $75,500 endowment (January)
  

2000

• Lucian and Rita Ebner Caste - gift of Andrew Carnegie materials (May)
  
  Caste gift of Andrew Carnegie items
  On May 24, the University Libraries hosted an informal reception for Lucian (CFA'50 and trustee) and Rita Ebner (Honorary'90) Caste, to celebrate the latest of Mr. and Mrs. Caste's gifts to Carnegie Mellon. The occasion marked the addition of important Andrew Carnegie materials to the University Archives, including a slide collection of family photographs acquired in Scotland by Mr. Caste. The remarkable photos, taken by Andrew's wife, Louise, reveal Andrew, daughter Margaret, and friends at their leisure in and around Skibo Castle in the early 1900s. The Castes also donated several rare books, including two volumes of Carnegie memoirs and a book about Carnegie as a young man.
  
  University librarian Gloriana St. Clair welcomed Mr. and Mrs. Caste, president Jared Cohon, provost Paul Christiano and development vice president Robbee Baker Kosak, CFA dean Martin Prekop, officers of the Academy for Lifelong Learning and the Andrew Carnegie Society, as well as faculty, staff and other friends to the reception in Hunt Library's Fine and Rare Book Room. President Cohon spoke of the Castes' continuing friendship and contributions to Carnegie Mellon, which have included Mr. Caste's university trusteeship and the couple's generous support of the Architecture Archives. Mr. Caste (owner/principal of Lucian Caste Architects & Engineers and newly-appointed Emeritus Lifetime Trustee) presented the Carnegie gift materials, describing their acquisition and noting their value for revealing Andrew Carnegie's "human side," among family and friends. In closing, Mr. Caste modestly summarised this gift (and the Castes' many other contributions to the university and the academic community) as simply the "sunrise" of their relationship with Carnegie Mellon.
  
  University archivist Gabrielle Michalek invites you to examine and enjoy the new Carnegie acquisitions, as well as other Andrew Carnegie materials, in the University Archives, Hunt Library. The archives are open 1 to 5 pm Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and 9 am to 1 pm Tuesday and Thursday, or by appointment, 412-268-5021. Architecture archivist Martin Aurand also extends a welcome to the university's Architecture Archives, which are open weekdays by appointment, 412-268-8165.
  
  
• Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc. - $30,000 grant (May)
  
  McKenna Foundation Grant
  Carnegie Mellon University Libraries are pleased to announce receipt of a $30,000 grant from the Philip M. McKenna Foundation, Inc. of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. The McKenna Foundation is an independent, private grant making foundation, established in 1967. Philip M. McKenna was an entreprenurial industrialist and inventer who founded McKenna Metals Company (now Kennametal Inc.) in 1938. The generous grant will be used to strengthen Carnegie Mellon's undergraduate library collections supporting environmental studies, and history and anthropology.
  
  Carnegie Mellon leads other universities with an educational initiative known as Environment Across the Curriculum that ensures Carnegie Mellon graduates have a broad understanding of environmental issues and problems, which affect all our lives. Students learn that environmental issues are an important component of many complex problems and must be considered early in problem solving efforts in every field. The Carnegie Mellon Department of History's anthropology and history program is similarly well known for taking advantage of the rich interaction between the theories and methodologies of both disciplines for the analysis of social processes and assessment of social, cultural and policy change. As quickly as these innovative programs attracted students, it was impossible for the University Libraries to keep up with demands for materials to adequately support them. After identifying deficiencies in particular undergraduate collections, the Libraries set out to address them by seeking funding from organizations and individuals who might help to support these educational endeavors as a mutual interest-and the McKenna Foundation stepped forward in partnership.
  
  University Librarian Gloriana St. Clair said, "McKenna has been a leader in assisting students in this part of Pennsylvania; we are delighted with their support for undergraduate learning at Carnegie Mellon University." In the past, the University Libraries have also partnered with the Teresa & H. John Heinz III Charitable Fund of the Heinz Family Foundation, The Howard Heinz Endowment, the Surdna Foundation, and two anonymous Pittsburgh foundations in the ongoing work of building and improving Carnegie Mellon's undergraduate library collections. The Libraries will continue to identify resources within the university and externally among interested corporations, foundations and individuals to maintain an active buying program to strengthen and maintain our heavily used undergraduate library collections.
  
  
• Japan Foundation - gift of books (May)
  
  Japan Foundation Support
  Carnegie Mellon University Libraries are pleased to announce a generous award to the University Libraries from The Japan Foundation. The award, valued at Y986,000 or approximately $9000, is a gift of books that have been selected to enrich the library's collection for modern language studies, specifically Japanese studies. Head of Hunt Reference, Jean Alexander, learned of the Foundation's Library Support Program and wrote the winning grant application. As Ms. Alexander described in her application, "The Japan Foundation grant [will] allow us to supplement thin and uneven holdings with important classic and current scholarly studies. The list of requested titles was compiled with the assistance of subject specialists in history, social sciences, philosophy, gender studies, language and literature, and business." The Libraries' 140 book selections will be shipped in fall 2000, and all of the new titles should be available in the collection by the end of the year.
  
  
• Allen Newell and Herbert Simon papers; materials and financial support given by Noël Marie Newell and Dorothea Simon (September)
  
  Newell and Simon Research Papers Online for First Time at Carnegie Mellon
  The University Archives at Carnegie Mellon University has announced the online availability of the papers of computer scientist Allen Newell, including his collaborations with Nobel Prize-winning economist Herbert A. Simon. Access to the Newell and Simon papers is being developed as the second phase of the university's original HELIOS digital archive, funded in part by a two-year grant from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), with support from Noël Marie Newell, wife of the late Newell.
  
  Newell, who died in 1992, pioneered the study of artificial intelligence through designing computer architectures and program languages that were modeled on human problem solving behaviors. In co-designing a groundbreaking series of "thinking machines" such as a chess-playing program, the Logic Theorist and the General Problem Solver, Newell established himself as an expert in experimental cognitive psychology. His most enduring achievement, Soar (State, Operator and Result theory), was not only a problem-solving program but also a unified theory of cognition that brought him renown in both machine and human science.
  
  Simon, Newell's frequent research partner, applied scientific methods to the previously theoretical field of economics. His first book, Administrative Behavior, called for the use of quantitative experiments in studying organizational decision-making. At the RAND Corporation in the 1950s, Simon collaborated with fellow consultant Newell to use digital computers to model the symbolic operations of the mind, as determined by empirical study of problem solving processes. Newell and Simon were jointly awarded the Association for Computing Machinery's prestigious Turing Award in 1975. Simon received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1977.
  
  The Newell and Simon collections at Carnegie Mellon include technical reports, lectures, teaching materials, computer and publication drafts. Researchers may search, browse and print more than 100,000 digital images from the Allen Newell Collection (http://diva.library.cmu.edu/Newell/). An estimated 150,000 images will be available online when the project is completed. Digitization of the Herbert A. Simon Collection began in summer 2000 [now completed at http://diva.library.cmu.edu/Simon/ ]. Materials from the collections that are not selected for digitization - including correspondence with other leading researchers in the fields of computer science, cognitive psychology and economics - may be examined in their original formats at the University Archives in Carnegie Mellon's Hunt Library.
  
  The university's premier digitization project, HELIOS, is complete and provides online access to the bulk of the H. John Heinz III Archives. Nearly 800,000 images documenting Heinz's service in the U.S. House of Representatives (1971-1976) and the U.S. Senate (1977-1991) are now available to researchers via the Internet. Since January 1998, when HELIOS went online, the digital archive has logged more than 1,700 users who have initiated more than 2,700 search sessions. The HELIOS project was supported by the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation, Heinz Company Foundation, and the Howard and Vira I. Heinz Endowments, with additional funding from Carnegie Mellon and CLARITECH Corporation.
  
  
• Lorraine Levy and the History department; Eugene D. Levy Memorial Fund
  
  Images of an Industrial Landscape: Photographs by Gene Levy
  Eugene D. Levy, Carnegie Mellon history professor emeritus, passed away in December 1999. His widow, Lorraine, and the history department established a memorial fund through the University Libraries to honor Gene and remember his many accomplishments and contributions. Dr. Levy's work was celebrated with an exhibit in Hunt Library, "Images of an Industrial Landscape: Photographs by Gene Levy, 1975-1995," selected by Lorraine Levy and David Demarest, associate professor emeritus, English department.
  
  
• The Posner Family Collection; materials and financial support given by the family of Henry Posner
  
  The Posner Family Collection to be digitized
  Interested scholars will soon be able to access full-text of the Posner Family Collection via the World Wide Web. With support from Henry Posner, Jr., Trustee, the University Libraries' staff is digitizing and indexing this wonderful collection, which was built over a 50-year period (1925-1977) by Mr. Henry Posner, Sr. The Posner Family Collection contains 622 titles, including landmark titles in the history of western science, beautifully-produced books on decorative arts, and fine sets of literature.
  
  
• Emma O. Sharp (L'36) - unrestricted gift
  Renovated employee workspace.
  
  
• PNC Bank Charitable Trust Committee
  Strengthened the modern languages collection.
  

• Mrs. Margaret Curry (MM'47) - John Knox Shear materials
  
  Curry Gift to Architecture Archives
  Carnegie Mellon University Libraries are pleased to announce a generous gift to the Architecture Archives from Mrs. Margaret Curry, MM'47. Mrs. Curry donated architectural drawings, correspondence, and other records associated with her late first husband, John Knox Shear (1917-1958), A'38 and A'41, head of the Department of Architecture at Carnegie Tech from 1948-1955, and editor of Architectural Record. Mrs. Curry's gift provides invaluable documentation about the career of a Carnegie Tech man who was a leader in the architectural profession.
  
  Among the materials is a fiery correspondence with Frank Lloyd Wright, including two original letters signed by Wright. The exchange came as a result of an August 1955 Architectural Record editorial by Shear, who took issue with Wright's testimony before Congress regarding the modernist architectural plans for the U.S. Air Force Academy. Wright had been critical of the Academy's architects and the architectural profession as a whole, which Shear contested on behalf of the profession. Wright responded to the editorial with a short contentious letter, which Shear countered, and Wright countered again. Architecture Archivist Martin Aurand states, "The Wright letters are a real find, in their identity as Wrightian artifacts, in their association with an important architectural controversy, and in the revealing vehemence of their prose."
  
  Also included in Mrs. Curry's gift are letters from Walter Gropius and Paul Rudolph, project records from Shear's architectural practice, portfolios of Carnegie Tech student work from the 1940s, and Department of Architecture documents from Shear's tenure as department head.
  

1998

• The Cyert Family; in memory of Richard M. Cyert (H'89), emeritus university president and professor
  
  Richard M. Cyert, H '89, emeritus university president and professor in GSIA, passed away in October 1998 and his family recommended that donations in his memory should go to University Libraries. Approximately $45,000 was received in his honor; both American Standard Company and Kelso & Company donated $10,000 each. The support will be used to improve operations in the University Archives and also to purchase reference materials in economics, information technology, and interdisciplinary studies. In the spring semester 1999, a design class created bookplates in memory of Dr. Cyert as a class assignment. We will use several of the student-designed bookplates to designate Cyert memorial acquisitions. Winning designers included Hilary Greenbaum, Joseph Magnani, Anna Main, and Maria Manautou. It was a great experience to collaborate with the students on this project.
  
  
• In memory of Robert C. Slack, emeritus professor of English
  
  Robert C. Slack, emeritus professor of English, passed away in December 1998. Dr. Slack was passionate about Victorian literature and one of his favorite authors was Thomas Hardy. His family, friends, and the English department are remembering him with a plaque in Hunt Library. Donations will also be used to purchase books to support the English curriculum.
  
  
• Emma O. Sharp (L'36) - unrestricted gift
  Helped to eradicate a deficiency in modern languages book collection.
  
  
• Adtranz; in honor of Raymond Betler (HSS'79 and CIT'79), company president
  
  Adtranz, a transportation company located in Pittsburgh, presented University Libraries with a gift in honor of their president, Raymond Betler, H&SS '79 and CIT '79. Ray stays connected with Carnegie Mellon through his involvement with the engineering college and the recruitment process. The gift will allow the Engineering and Science Library to increase its holdings in engineering books.
  
  
• anonymous; to support Environment Across the Curriculum (EAC)
  
  The university's Environment Across the Curriculum (EAC) program received two anonymous gifts this year, one from a local foundation and one from an individual. The money will be use to purchase reference materials. EAC provides an initiative for all undergraduate students to learn about environmental issues as part of their regular coursework. Examples of classes participating in the initiative include freshman chemistry, history, and introduction to engineering, as well as classes later in students' majors, such as thermodynamics and statistics.
  
  
• Roy A Hunt Foundation; to refurbish Hunt Library first floor
  
  New chairs and carpeting are on order for the reading lounge located on the first floor of Hunt Library; this purchase is the result of funding from the Roy A. Hunt Foundation. In the spring semester 1999, three Carnegie Mellon architecture students (Chris Reynolds, Shalini Vajjhala and Rachel Zsembery) did a detailed study of the reading lounge and made recommendations on its use. Recommendations included keeping window views unobstructed, creating meeting space for students, and allowing the space to permit dynamic furniture arrangements.
  
  

1997

• The Stebbins Family; in memory of Frederick Osborne Stebbins (E'22)
  
  Frederick Osborne Stebbins (E'22), who worked as an engineer for 41 years at General Electric, was paid tribute by his wife, Thora, and son, William, with an endowed gift for the purchase of engineering and science books and journals. This is a critical collection for our curriculum, and one that is plagued by sharply rising costs. The impact of the Stebbins endowment will be appreciated at Carnegie Mellon for years to come.
  
  
• colleagues and friends: in memory of Granville H. "Pete" Jones, emeritus professor of English
  
  Granville H. "Pete" Jones, emeritus professor in the English Department, passed away recently from cancer. He was remembered by colleagues and friends in the Faculty Organization with a gift to the A. Fred Sochatoff Collection in Classical Literature & Rhetoric. Rhetoric is a premier program at Carnegie Mellon, with broad implications for the entire university curriculum.