Our Growing Collections    |
 

Mandel gift: A gift of Masonic manuscripts in
German and Russian from the eighteenth and
nineteenih centuries was presented to the
Librar\' bv Lena Mandel. Mrs. Mandel also
dtjnaled a diary and a collection of books once
belonging to the Russian philosopher Madimir
Shmakov. Shmakov visited the United States
in the 1890s and recorded in his diary his
observations on American public figures.
 

included was a typed biography of Joseph
Urban that had reportedly been lost when the
Andrea Doria sank off the coast of
Massachusetts. The Urban C'ollection, one of
Columbia's most impressive resources for the
study of theater and film, is currently being
rehoused and cataloged, thanks to a 1995
grant from the National Endowment for
the Humanities.
 

Lorentz gift: An important addition was made
by Mrs. Elizabeth Lorentz to the papers of her
late husband, the doctimentary filmmaker
Pare Lorentz. This latest gift of ten boxes of
files is particularly interesting in that it docu¬
ments Lorentz's activities during World War II,
working with the Motion Picture Section of
the Overseas Technical Unit, Air Transport
Command. Also included are sixty still pho¬
tographs of dams, created for the Tennessee
Valley Authority, and tiles relating to the
creation of the U.S. Film Service.

Maurino gift: In March 1996, Manuel Maurino
donated a group of materials to the Joseph
Urban Collection that had originally belonged
to Mary Urban, the widow of the architect and
theatrical designer whose papers are at
Columbia. The papers, which had been found
in the basement of Mr. Maurino's home, once
the Urban residence, include photographs,
letters from Joseph Urban to Mary, telegrams
from Flo Ziegfeld to Urban, financial records,
and records from Joseph Urban's estate. Also
 

Schapiro bequest: The Estate of Meyer Schapiro
(B.A., 1924; M.A., 1926; Ph.D., 1935) gave to
the Rare Book and Manuscript Library four
early modern printed books from Professor
Schapiro's library: Di Herone Alessandrino de
Gli Aulomati, onero Machine se Moventi, Libri
due, Tradotti dal Greco da Bernardino Baldi,
Abbate di Guastalla (Venice, 1601); M. Vitruvius
Pollionis, De Architectura, Libri Decem ad
Caesarem Augustum, omnibus omnium edition-
ibus longe emendatiores, collatis veteribus
exemplis. (Lugduni, 1552); Sibyllina Oracula,
ex tiett codd aucta renouata, et notis illustrata
a D. Johanne OpsopaetJ Brettano. (aim inter-
pretatione Latina Sebastiani Castalionis et
Indice (Paris, L599); and Ammianus
Marcellini, Rerum Gestarum, cum notis integris
Henric(j et Hadrianoque Valesiis and
Frederico Lindenbrogio, Jac. Gronoviil
(Lugduni Batavorum, 1693).