Harry Ransom Center

The Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more than 100,000 works of art. The Center has a reading room for scholars and galleries which display rotating exhibitions of works and objects from the collections.

Notable possessions

The two most prominent possessions in the Ransom Center's collections are a Gutenberg Bible (one of only 21 complete copies known to exist) and Nicéphore Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras, the first successful permanent photograph from nature. Both of these objects are on permanent display in the main lobby.

Beyond these, the Center houses many culturally important documents and artifacts. Particular strengths include modern literature, performing arts, and photography. Some notable holdings include:

Literature

• Three copies of the First Folio of William Shakespeare
• A suppressed first edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, one of only 23 copies known to exist
• The personal libraries of writers such as Ezra Pound, Evelyn Waugh, Alice Corbin Henderson, and the Coleridge family
• Extensive manuscript collections of Lewis Carroll, Doris Lessing, Aleister Crowley, James Joyce, T. E. Lawrence, D. H. Lawrence, T.H. White, Carson McCullers, Norman Mailer, Anne Sexton, Don DeLillo, Graham Greene, and David Foster Wallace
• Edgar Allan Poe's writing desk
• A large collection of rare and valuable comic books
• A writing journal kept by Jack Kerouac in preparation for writing On the Road
• The Cardigan manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
• The extremely rare and sought after original first edition of Liber Al (among other original Crowley First Editions), also known as the Vellum books but more popularly known as the Holy Book of Thelema by Aleister Crowley
• Tarot Cards hand colored by Aleister Crowley

History

• A 16th century globe designed by Gerardus Mercator
• Kraus Map Collection, a 16th and 17th century cartographic collection
• An official declaration by Napoleon Bonaparte
• The love letters of the Mexican Emperor Maximilian I and his wife Carlotta
• Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's notes, interviews, manuscripts, and other documents relating to the Watergate scandal
• The first permanent photograph still unperished to this day — original plate of Niépce's View from the Window at Le Gras

Theatre and film

• The papers of Stella Adler, Robert DeNiro, David Mamet, Arthur Miller, David O. Selznick, George Bernard Shaw, Tom Stoppard, Gloria Swanson, Tennessee Williams and Spalding Gray
• Selected costumes, script drafts, storyboards, and audition tapes from Gone with the Wind. These are part of the David O. Selznick Collection
• Unused props designed by Salvador Dalí to have been used in the dream sequence in Spellbound
• The sunglasses worn by Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard

Art

• Two paintings by Frida Kahlo: Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird and Still Life (with Parrot and Fruit)
• A she-wolf statue carved in stone and coated with gold leaf (now worn off) by Eric Gill, creator of Gill Sans
• Busts of various writers (on display in the lobby and reading room)
• Large holdings in art by writers and portraits of literary figures
• Facsimile of the piano suite Gaspard de la nuit composed by Maurice Ravel

References

• Max, D. T. (June 11, 2007). "Letter from Austin: Final Destination". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/06/11/070611fa_fact_max. Retrieved 2007-06-20. 
• Pearson, Rachel (March 7, 2006). "Center offers literary sort of Ransom". The Daily Texan. http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2006/03/07/LifeArts/Center.Offers.Literary.Sort.Of.Ransom-1657583.shtml. Retrieved 2006-03-17. 
• Pearson, Rachel (March 8, 2006). "Ransom Center criticized abroad". The Daily Texan. http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2006/03/08/LifeArts/Ransom.Center.Criticized.Abroad-1659156.shtml. Retrieved 2006-03-17. 
• Page, Caroline (October 30, 2007). "HRC holds cultural gems". The Daily Texan. http://media.www.dailytexanonline.com/media/storage/paper410/news/2007/10/30/TopStories/Hrc-Holds.Cultural.Gems-3064573.shtml. Retrieved 2007-10-30. 
• Page, Caroline (November 7, 2007). "Ransom Center home to De Niro collection and other rare works". The Daily Texan. http://www.dailytexanonline.com/home/news/2007/11/07/TopStories/Ransom.Center.Home.To.De.Niro.Collection.And.Other.Rare.Works-3084198.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-19. 
• Page, Caroline (November 15, 2007). "Ransom Center leads in conservation". The Daily Texan. http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2007/11/15/TopStories/Ransom.Center.Leads.In.Conservation-3103660.shtml. Retrieved 2007-11-19. 
• Page, Caroline (December 4, 2007). "Literary treasure hunt". The Daily Texan. http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2007/12/04/TopStories/Literary.Treasure.Hunt-3130537.shtml. Retrieved 2007-12-04. 
• "Harry Ransom Center Acquires Rare Plantin Polyglot Bible". April 29, 2008. http://www.utexas.edu/news/2008/04/29/hrc_plantin_bible/. Retrieved 2008-05-01. 

External links

• Harry Ransom Center