Late 1890s-early 1900s
The Fogg Art Museum mounted photographs and prints for many departments in the University. Its own collection of photographs had outgrown the cases set aside for it, and the museum could not afford new cases. Photographs accumulated in piles on top of the old cases.73
Early 1900s
Gore Hall was utterly overwhelmed with books. Many books were sent for storage in departmental libraries and other buildings. Discussion of off-site storage continued.74
1900
Frank Carney (who worked in the Shelf Department) described the annual cleaning of books in Gore Hall. Janitors took down a section of books and put them in order on a table. They washed the empty shelf with a “nearly dry” sponge and a brush, if necessary, to remove excess dirt. Books were “taken from the table and the top and sides wiped with a dry cloth and knocked together gently to shake out any dust remaining upon them.” To clean the whole library took several months. The job was done by one or more people.75
1900
Due to overcrowding, the Radcliffe Library was moved from Fay House to the Gilman Schoolhouse. The need for a fireproof building with high storage capacity and good ventilation was apparent. The addition—several years later—of two extra rows of shelves to the bookcases did little to help the situation.76
February 1900
Many books in the Harvard collection were discovered to have been mutilated in order to remove their bookplates. Dr. Charles E. Cameron, a Boston physician, stole the plates and subsequently sold them to collectors. Most plates were recovered. Cameron paid all expenses, including the cost of rebinding the books.77
May 1900
The Harvard Treasurer's accounts from 1669 to 1693 were in terrible condition, due in large part to “a long sojourn in John Hancock's carriage house where they were eaten by insects and discolored and rotted by damp.” Harvard commissioned the Emery Record Company of Taunton to mount each page between sheets of white silk.78
1900
Harvard received the Riant collection of early manuscripts and incunabula. Initially these items were stored in locked cases. The value of this collection led the library to consider building a Treasure Room, for secure storage and display of rare and valuable books.79
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74 See Charles W. Eliot’s and William Coolidge Lane’s annual reports of this period. For example, see Charles W. Eliot, “The President’s Report,” and William Coolidge Lane, “The Library,” Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College 1902- 1903 (1904): 27 and 198-200.
75 Harvard University. Records of the Harvard University Library. Records relating to the activities of the Library. Frank Carney, “History of the Shelf Department,” 1900. Archives UA.III.50.29.00.6. Harvard University Archives. Courtesy of the Harvard University Archives.
76 Ruth K. Porritt, “The Radcliffe College Library after Seventy-five Years,” Harvard Library Bulletin 9, no. 3 (1955): 338; Caroline Farley, “Report of the Librarian,” Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Radcliffe College 1903-1904: 61.
77 William Coolidge Lane, “The Library,” Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College 1899-1900 (1901): 216; William Coolidge Lane, “The Library,” Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College 1900-1901 (1902): 194.
78 William Coolidge Lane, “The Library,” Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College 1899-1900 (1901): 237.
79 William Coolidge Lane, “The Library,” Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College 1899-1900 (1901): 219; William Coolidge Lane, “The Library,” Annual Reports of the President and Treasurer of Harvard College 1901-1902 (1903): 216.