Activities of the Friends
 

Winter Reception. The Libraries' large collection of Rockwell Kent
drawings formed the basis ofthe winter exhibition, "Designs for
Living: The Decorative Arts of Rockwell Kent," which was opened
with a reception sponsored by the Friends on Thursday afternoon,
March 5. The more than one hundred drawings and paintings
exhibited were drawn from gifts received over the years from Dr.
Corliss Lamont, Mr. Dan Burne Jones, Mr. George M. Jaffin, Mrs.
Iphigene Sulzberger, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred C. Berol, Mrs. Sally
Kent Gorton, Mr. and Mrs. Herman Cohen, and Mr. and Mrs.
George Spector. This first exhibition devoted to Kent's designs for
the home, commercial advertising, and decorations for public
buildings also includes pieces of dinnerware, fabrics with Kent's
designs, wrapping paper, and other decorative objects, many of
them specially lent for the exhibition, which will remain on view
through July 31.

Bancroft Awards Dinner. Presided over by Elizabeth M. Cain,
Chairman ofthe Friends, the annual Bancroft Awards Dinner was
held in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library on Thursday eve¬
ning, April 2. President Michael I. Sovern announced the winners
of the 1987 awards for distinguished books in American history
and diplomacy published in 1986: Thomas M. Doerflinger, A
Vigorous Spirit of Enterprise: Merchants and Economic Development in
Revolutionary Philadelphia, University of North Carolina Press; and
Roger Lane, Roots of Violence in Black Philadelphia, 1860-1900,
Harvard University Press. The President presented to the author of
each book an award of $4,000 from funds provided by the Edgar
A. and Frederic Bancroft Foundation, and the Chairman of the
Friends presented certificates to the publishers of the award-
winning books.
 

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