MANY BOOKS BROUGHT FROM SOUTH AMERICA

The University Library, by virtue of some recent additions which have been in the process of unpacking and cataloging during the past few weeks, now ranks well among the foremost of American libraries in its possession of South American Literature.

The recent accession is the culmination of a two years' book-hunting expedition to South America by Dr. Walter Lichtenstein, formerly connected with the University Library and now librarian at Northwestern University. Dr. Lichtenstein was in South America from August, 1913, to December, 1914, during which time he was a joint representative of the John Crerar Library of Chicago, of the Northwestern University Library in Evanston, Ill., and of the University Library here in Cambridge. He made a complete tour of all the principal South American cities.

Private Collections Purchased.

Of his purchases, four private collections are the most important. These were bought in Caracas, Venzuela, La Paz, Bolivia, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Ascension, Paraguay, all of which contained hundreds of books, pamphlets and newspapers, covering exhaustively the histories of these particular countries. Dr. Lichtenstein's last purchase, bought in Paraguay, has not yet been received; but the other three are here and during the past few weeks Mr. David Heald of the College Library, Dr. Lichtenstein, of Northwestern University, and Dr. Clement W. Andrews of the John Crerar Lib- rary have been unpacking and dividing the collection. As yet it is too early to say precisely what the University has gained, but in general the results are as follows; from the Venzuelan collection it has acquired several hundred pamphlets and books, which gives it a very strong collection from that country; from the Bolivian library it has gained material of a similar nature on Bolivia; and from the Brazilian collection it has secured a number of works on Indian linguistics, a subject in which it was already strong. In all instances the Library has secured a great number of books and pamphlets printed in the southern countries themselves which would be impossible to obtain except by such a mission as Dr. Lichtenstein undertook.

Prior to this addition, the Library's Pan-American collection, including books of history, geography and literature of all countries south of the United States, numbered only 7,000 volumes, which number was surpassed by both the Library at Washington, D. C., and the one at Yale. The collection has had a slow but steady growth, the first real accession coming in 1909 when Professor A. C. Coolidge '87 and Mrs. C. L. Hay bought and presented the library of the late Luis Montt of Santiago de Chile. This 1909 addition made the Library unusually strong in Chilean Literature and with the new collections obtained by Dr. Lichtenstein the College now possesses a very extensive and well balanced library of South American history and literature.

Law School Benefitted.

The Law School Library as well as the College Library also benefitted by Dr. Lichtenstein's trip. Several attempts, prior to this recent trip, were made in order to secure for the Law School a collection of the laws, decisions and doctrinal legal writings of the Southern republics but the results were, for the most part, fragmentary. Through the efforts of Dr. Lichtenstein, however, a very complete collection of material from these countries has been obtained and at the present time the Law Library is probably as fully equipped in South American legal writings as any law library in the United States with the possible exception of the Library of Congress