Activities of the Friends

Winter Reception. "Russians and the \\'est," an exhibition of
treasures from the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and E,ast Euro¬
pean History and Culture, opened with a reception in Low Li¬
brary Rotunda on Thursday afternoon, February 2, sponsored by
the University Librarian and the Friends of the Libraries, and at¬
tended by nearly two hundred guests. The manuscripts, artworks,
first editions and memorabilia on view illustrated Russian con¬
tacts with the West, the influence of the \\'est on Russian culture,
and the migration of Russians to the \\'est. On exhibit wete rare
manuscripts and printed works of Peter the Great, Nicholas II,
Mikhail Eermontov, Leo Tolstoy, Ivan Turgenev, Leon Trotsky,
Vladimir Lenin, Sergei Diagilev, Feodor Chaliapin, Anna Pav¬
lova, Wassily Kandinsky, Boris Pasternak and Vladimir Nabo¬
kov, among numerous others. Also on view was the oil portrait
of the last non-Soviet Russian ambassador to the United States,
Boris Bakhmeteff, painted in 1953 by Nicolas Becker and donated
last year by Mrs. Julia A. Bazavoff.

Bancroft Awards Dinner. The annual Bancroft dinner, at which
prizes for distinguished works in American history and diplomacy
are awarded, was held in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library
on Thursday evening, March 29, with Gordon N. Ray presiding.
President .Michael I. Sovern announced the winners of the 1984
awards for books published in 1983 which a jury deemed of ex¬
ceptional merit and distinction. Awards were presented for the
following:Lt)uis R. Harlan, Booker T. Washingtoti: The Wizard
of Tuskegee, i(loi-i()i^, published by Oxford University Press;
and Paul Starr, I'he Social Transfor7natio7i. of American Medi-
ci7i.e, published by Basic Books. The President presented to the
author of each book a $4,000 award from funds provided by the
Edgar A. and Frederic Bancroft Foundation; Dr. Ray presented
citations to the publishers.

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