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Bookplate Index by Library or Collector
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DeGolyer Collection, University of Oklahoma Everette Lee DeGolyer (1886-1956), a 1911 graduate of the geology program at the University of Oklahoma, was an eminent petroleum geologist and bibliophile. He had already collected Southwest Americana and the works of several nineteenth-century British authors, when he was inspired in 1947 by James Bryant Conant's On Understanding Science to begin formally collecting works forming the foundations of scientific knowledge. Conant's thesis was that the underlying connection in understanding science is its history. DeGolyer believed this area of study had been neglected by the academic community, and he began a collection to support a proposed program of study in the history of science at the University of Oklahoma. Savoie Lottinville (1906-), director of the University of Oklahoma Press, recalls encouraging him in the inception of that collection. In 1990 Lottinville shared his recollections with Lisa Remy, graduate student, School of Library and Information Studies. I
took him to lunch (I paid), and we returned to my office, where, putting
his feet atop my desk, he asked me a hypothetical question: "If I were to
give you a blank check to buy all of the important books in printed
editions, from Aristotle forward, significant in the history of science,
do you think you could do it?" I answered immediately and entirely
unwitting of the odds, that I could.
Through the collaborative efforts of DeGolyer and the faculty and
administration at the University of Oklahoma, a collection was planned to
support a new curriculum focused on the writing and thinking of scientists
throughout history. Lottinville remembers explaining to the selection
committee members "that we now had what amounted to a blank check to
buy printed first editions the world over. What, therefore, should we name
as our initial choices? After what seemed to me a long pause, one of the
committeemen said, 'I think Newton is important.'" The humor of the
situation did not escape Lottinville.
DeGolyer himself actively acquired materials for the collection
during his lifetime, searching out books while traveling extensively in
the United States and Europe. He also turned to dealers like Jacob Zeitlin
of Los Angeles and several other history of science specialists to help
find the needed volumes. By 1949 DeGolyer had collected some six hundred
rare and landmark volumes, which he turned over to the university.
Savoie Lottinville also was instrumental in bringing Will Ransom
(1878-1955), who would later design the DeGolyer Collection bookplate, to
the University of Oklahoma. Ransom was noted for books published in
1901-1902 at his own press in Washington and later for his work in 1921-1923
at the Goudy's Village Press in Chicago. His 1929 book, Private Presses
and Their Books, remains a standard reference tool in the field.
Lottinville and the University of Oklahoma Press successfully recruited
Ransom, who served as chief of design and production at the University
Press from 1941 until his death in 1955. For five consecutive years, 1945
to 1949, books designed by Ransom and published by the University of
Oklahoma Press were listed among the Fifty Best Books by the American
Institute of Graphic Arts. Will Ransom was already well established in the
university when Lottinville and DeGolyer began discussing the creation of
a history of science collection for the University of Oklahoma.
In 1951, when the university library began to actively acquire
materials for the collection, Arthur McAnally, director of the University
Library, asked that a special bookplate be designed for the E. DeGolyer
Collection in the History of Science and Technology. Lottinville assigned
the job to Ransom, identifying him in a memorandum to the university's
president George L. Cross as "one of the three or four greatest
typographic artists in the United States. "The personal and business
correspondence and Ransom's preliminary design sketches for this bookplate
project are among the archives of the Western History Collections at the
University of Oklahoma. The final bookplate, shown on the cover, is 1 3/4
by 2 1/2 inches wide and is printed on near Shizuoka Vellum #1. Willard A.
Lockwood, art director of the University Press, acted as adjutant
communicating on preservation issues with the Stevens-Nelson Paper
Corporation of New York. The challenge was to produce a plate suitable for
the fine collection, but also printed on a stock that would not in any way
damage the incunabula and valuable
books. The paper company conducted laboratory tests on eight papers in
their catalog "Specimens" and suggested two. It was decided to
purchase half a ream of the Shizuoka Vellum #1 for the printing of 10,000
bookplates. It is obvious from the many preliminary sketches in the archives
that Ransom made an effort to incorporate the crossed geologist's picks of
DeGolyer's personal book stamp into the new design, but eventually decided
against this. Shown here are examples of DeGolyer's original book stamp
and one of Ransom's unused bookplate designs. In June 1954 Ransom
completed the design; the finished bookplate was in use by the following
fall. The university eventually recruited Duane H. D. Roller, a graduate of Harvard University and historian of science, to continue the development of the collection. The DeGolyer Collection, now the History of Science Collections, is located in Bizzell Memorial Library. It contains 43 incunabula and innumerable first editions of the classics of science; total holdings are over 70,000 volumes and 10,000 microforms. The basic collection development policy, "to acquire every edition including translations, of every book that has been published in science since printing's inception, as well as all scientific periodicals," suggests the comprehensive level to which this research collection is growing. The Darwin materials are an example of this comprehensiveness; they consist of all of the first editions of Charles Darwin's works and more than 430 additional printings and editions, including translations into many languages. The History of Science Collections emphasize not only depth in the publications of individual significant scientists, but also the breadth of science through the collection of the complete works of lesser-known scientists. Everette Lee DeGolyer's inspiration is now an internationally recognized history of science research collection. Kathleen Hogan Norman, Oklahoma
[Originally published in Journal of Library History, vol. 26, no. 4 (Spring 1991): 608-610.]
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| Last updated June 30, 2001 |
