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Bookplate Index by Library or Collector
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Ames Library of South Asia University of Minnesota In 1908 recent Harvard graduate Charles Lesley Ames (1884-1964) made a trip to England. As part of his reading materials for the sea voyage, Ames brought a copy of the recently published Tale of the Great Mutiny by W. H. Fitchett (London: Smith, Elder, 1907). Referring to the work in1953, Ames observed that “this is the book which originally stimulated [my] interest in the Indian Mutiny and the collection of books relating to it. It may reasonably be considered as the starting point of the collection of this library.” From this modest beginning was to develop the largest private library in North America dealing with the Indian subcontinent. The Ames family business was West Publishing Company, for many years the world’s largest publisher of legal materials. This business and professional background in the law prompted Mr. Ames to acquire works relating to India that reflected the legal and official relations of the British in India, in contrast to most book collectors, who concentrated upon aspects of India’s humanistic traditions and Indology. Military history, commissions of inquiry into conditions of life in India, governmental manuals, guides, and other compendiums reflect this interest. However, Mr. Ames more broadly collected works on the British-Indian interaction. The collection is rich in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century biographies as well as travel accounts and descriptions of India, works that came to his library, thanks to the agreement he had with four British rare book dealers that whenever they acquired libraries or collections dealing with India, he had first refusal rights to the individual titles. Also in contrast to collecting patterns of the time, Mr. Ames actively sought out and acquired works published by Indians. The earliest imprint in the collection dates to 1587: Jeronimo Osorio’s Histoire de Portugal: contenant les entreprises, navigations & gestes memorables des Portugallois, tant en la conqueste des Index Orientales . . . (Paris: Chez Guillaume de la Noue, 1587). The earliest imprint in English is Samuel Purchas’s Purchas his pilgrimes: In five books (London: printed by William Stansby for Menrie Fetherstone, 1625). In 1961 Mr. Ames presented the library to the University of Minnesota with the stipulation that it could never be merged into the general library collection but would always be a separate collection, although additional materials could be added to it. The Ames Library of South Asia thus became the only separately housed library dealing with South Asia in an academic setting in the United States. The gift contained 25,000 volumes of monographs, 100 volumes of bound pamphlets containing over 1,000 individual tracts and pamphlets that provide access to a wealth of diverse opinions on topics such as British reform efforts in India, 100 bound manuscript volumes, and 15 linear feet of unbound manuscripts. G. K. Hall published a sixteen-volume catalog of the library in 1980. Thanks to subsequent University of Minnesota purchases, as well as participation in the “PL480’ program” for South Asia, the library has grown to 175,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the social sciences and humanities. The installation of an exhibit case in the Ames Library in 1997 has allowed rare books to be shown to a wider audience. Selected illustrations from the works on display are mounted on the Ames Library web page (www.lib.umn.edu/ames/). The illustrations are not deleted from the web page, so over time browsers will be able to see the depth and variety of materials held, primarily in the rare book portion of the Ames Library of South Asia. The 13.5 x 21 cm. Ames bookplate is a drawing of the reading room Mr. Ames had for the library in the home he built in suburban St. Paul, so that he would have adequate quarters for his ever-growing collection and was used from 1957 until 1961, when the collection came to the University of Minnesota. Both Mr. and his wife, Linda Baker Ames, are noted in the bookplate, although Mrs. Ames did not share her husband’s great interest in India. While the central portion of the bookplate contains the drawing of his study, with several Indian objects on the fireplace mantle, the upper and lower portions contain items with Indian connotations. Centered in the upper portion is a representation of Nataraj, the Hindu God Shiva dancing the world into creation, flanked by armorial heralds. The bottom portion contains a globe of the world centered upon India, flanked by a horse and bull. Landscape views of a generic Indian countryside complete this portion. At the very bottom of the plate is the name Lowell Bobtetu, who probably executed the drawing.
Most strangely, given his great interest in the British experience
in India, Mr. Ames visited India only once, and then only after the
British left in 1947. In 1949 he and Mrs. Ames attended the India America
conference in New Delhi. Charles Lesley Ames’s library was well known in
India, and numerous organizations and individuals, including Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, made a special effort to meet the man who had
collected the noted Ames Library of South Asia. Donald
Clay Johnson, Curator Ames
Library of South Asia University of Minnesota [Originally published in Libraries & Culture, vol. 35, no. 4 (Fall 2000): 576-578.]
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| Last updated June 8, 2001 |
