SALUTE TO PSPA FROM
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
At the end of last year, the University of Pennsylvania’s Orrery Society sent us a recognition of PSPA’s support of its collection of book and manuscripts and of Penn Libraries. Included was a biography of Lynne Farrington, Senior Curator of Special Collections at Van Pelt Library who has been taking care of PSPA’s collection of books and manuscripts since coming to the University of Pennsylvania in 1992.
One of Lynne’s first tasks was the overseeing the completion of the PSPA conservation project, a landmark program to restore deteriorating materials. A continuing responsibility for Lynne is the use of the endowment fund to add to PSPA collections. As desirable works are expensive, purchases are not frequent, but over the last couple of years Lynne found a first edition of Turbilly’s Mémoire sur les défrichemens, printed in Paris in 1760 and subsequently a translation of this—A Discourse on the Cultivation of Waste andBarren Lands printed in London in 1762.
Louis François Henri de Menon, Marquis de Turbilly (1717-1776), notable French agronomist who was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of London. On inheriting an estate with large portions of uncultivated land, Turbilly oversaw its clearing and by adding drainage, created productive soil and a model estate that was brought to the attention of Arthur Young. Turbilly saw the value of local agricultural societies and is responsible for the rise of many in France. He saw the value in awarding incentives for improving the farming practices and to that end awarded a large silver medal to the producer of the best field of wheat on his estates.
The diversity of the University of Pennsylvania’s collections is astonishing, and Lynne has responsibilities across the board. Because of this, her management of other collections at Penn often coordinates with PSPA’s mission. Working with the Penn’s extensive cookery collection, Lynne brought together material from various subject areas for students and researchers and initiated the Food Studies at Penn website, which she continues to maintain. As part of this initiative, Lynne headed a lecture series–American Pie: The Politics of Food in the 21st Century, sponsored by Penn Libraries in coordination with the Muriel Pfaelzer Bodek Public Affairs Lecture Series. Topics ranged from sustainability, food waste, and the need for large-scale food production.
The Orrery Society was created by Penn’s Vice Provost and Director of Libraries in 2008 “to recognize those individuals and groups who contribute to the enhancement of the Libraries’ information resources.” Through this organization Penn Libraries aims to increase support for the expansion of access to scholarly information and to increase awareness of University and alumni to the importance information plays in helping the University achieve its scholarly mission.
Summary of Support
The original PSPA book endowment fund of $500 was established in July 1888 when the books, papers, and portraits belonging to the PSPA were put in the care of the University. An additional amount of $406.74 was added in 1901.
Just about one hundred years later, in 1988, PSPA established a $52,000 conservation fund with contributions from the Pew Trust and individual PSPA members. This was the first conservation project developed at Van Pelt Library. The project continued into the 1900s with additional contributions of over $24,000.
With the monies raised for the conservation project in the 1990s and the establishment of the Mark Allam Library Fund, PSPA was able to support the electronic cataloguing of the collection with a gift of $20,000. A current project is in hand to fund the digitizing of the PSPA manuscript collection, with $4500 spent in the first part of the project and additional funds allocated to continue the process.