Our Growing Collections

KENNETH A. LOHF

Baer Gift. Mr. Albert M. Baer has presented the collection of let¬
ters and manuscripts of Lydia Maria Child, formed by his wife,
the late Hclcnc Baer, during the period she was writing her study.
The Heart is Like Heaven: The Life of Lydia .Maria Child, pub¬
lished in 1964 by the University of Pennsylvania Press. Concern¬
ing primarily slavery and the Abolitionist Movement, the twenty-
six letters in the gift, dating from the 1840's to 1879, were written
to some of the most important editors and reformers of the time,
among them George A\'illiam Curtis and A\'illiain Ll<)\'d Garrison.
The seven manuscripts in Lydia M. Child's hand include the
poems, "A Yankee Soldier's Song," written ca. 1863, and "The
Dandy Poet's Appeal," ca. 1829.

Barnouw gift. Miss Elsa Barnouw has added to the collections a
group of forty works relating to Dutch history, literature and art,
dating from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries, among
which are included nineteen songbooks. Of special interest, apart
from the Dutch books, is the London, 1705, edition of George
Psalmanaazaar's An Historical and Geographical Description of
Formosa, An Island Subject to the Emperor of Japan. The author,
a literary imposter, was a native of the south of France, who posed
as a pagan and a Japanese, moved to England and was converted
to Christianity. His real name is unknown, but he took his fictitious
name from tlic biblical character, Slialmaneser, and pretended
that his birthplace was Formosa. The first book he published was
the imaginary Description of Formosa, illustrated witli fanciful
engravings of tlie island's royalty, inhabitants and methods of
transportation.

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