Major Donors

The AUB Library owes a great deal to a very large number of donors who contributed to its collections throughout its history. There is, however, a group to whom it owes its formation and to whom we, in turn, owe acknowledgment.

In the Annual Report of the Board of Managers in 1877 references are made to "valuable gifts having been received and acknowledged such as scientific and other extensive books to the medical department from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC, and various books and pamphlets to the medical department as well as Dr. Cammani's medical library through the generosity of his family in 1870; to 50 volumes of valuable books donated by Prof. Dodge in 1873; to donations for which the College is indebted to the Rev. Dr. Thompson, late of Beirut; the Hon. T.J. Edgar, US Consul at Beirut; to Rev. Mr. Reichhaardt of Damascus; Mr. William A. Booth; Rev. D.L. Dodge of New York; Dr. Richard Steel of Auburn, NY (1877)..."

• In 1882 13 volumes of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, new edition, were donated by the Rev. D.S. Dodge who also gave a large number of volumes at intervals dating from 1887 to 1913.
  

In his lifetime Cornelius Van Dyck donated most generously and, after his death in 1902, 367 books from his library were donated by his son Dr. William T. Van Dyck. Other donors were:

• 1870: The Missions Library of London - a large number of pamphlets to the medical department.
• 1886: The British and Foreign Bible Society - 65 volumes of the Scriptures in various languages. The Religious Tract Society - 160 volumes.
• 1888: Naufal Trabulsi Naufal Effendi of Tripoli - his whole library of manuscripts and printed books.
• 1899: Dr. George E. Post secured two private medical libraries from America consisting of about 1,000 volumes.
• 1901: Miss Black gave about 80 volumes.
• 1905: Mr. Kamsarakan, former Russian Consul at Hamata - some Armenian books.
• 1907: The Armenian Students Organization - Armenian Books.
• 1911: J. Ackerman Coles and J. Wynne.

During the war no accessions could be made, but after 1918 a dramatic increase in the number of acquisitions took place. The outstanding donations made between 1920 and 1952 were:

• 1920: The American Library Association donated approximately seventeen hundred volumes from their Overseas Library with the American Expeditionary Forces in France. Some of the books were sent from Paris in 1920 and others from Coblenz in 1922.
• 1920: Mrs. Howard Bliss donated a large number of books from her husband's library after his death.
• 1923: Mrs. Harvey Porter presented the personal library of her late husband in accordance with his expressed desire. It consisted of 250 volumes.
• 1923: The AUB Alumni Association resolved to donate annually $500 to enrich the Oriental Department of the Library.
• 1924: Mrs. Howard Bliss presented to the Library a collection of twenty-eight hundred photographs of views throughout the world which included the Bonfils collection on Lebanon and the Middle East - some of them considered unique by a Harvard team of specialists - which she named the "E. W. Blatchford Collection,".
• 1925: Salim Bey Abu-Izzeddin of the Ministry of Interior of Egypt presented more than one thousand original documents of the period of Ibrahim Pasha.
• 1926: The Smithsonian Institute presented four large cases of pamphlets from the various government bureaus at Washington.
• 1926: Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge made a regular annual gift of recently published books from 1909 until 1926. It was his custom to spend the sum of $500 each year and, after his death, Mrs. Dodge maintained the custom.
• 1933: Suleiman Bey Izzudine presented his private library of about 2000 volumes.
• 1937: Mrs. Edward F. Nickoley, University Librarian from 1919-1925, established the Nickoley Memorial Library in memory of her late husband Dean Nickoley. It became known as the "Social Science Library" as it was housed in the Social Sciences Building, but was incorporated into the main library with her permission in 1951.
• 1951: A large donation of books was made from the libraries of Dr. Beshara Manasseh and Mr. Theophilus Waldmeier, presented by their children Irma Manasseh and her husband Aziz Garzouzi.

Through the generosity of Dr. Bayard Dodge, the Library acquired the Issa Malouf collection of rare Arabic manuscripts and the whole of the library of the late Jurjus Hammam.

• 1951: As the direct result of a personal contact made by Mr. Jibran Bikhazi of the University Library, the Library of Congress presented to the Jafet Library around nine hundred volumes. Mr. Bikhazi also concluded arrangements which made the Jafet Library a partial depository for US Government publications.
• 1951: Departing from the usual custom of naming only national libraries as depositories for UN publications, the UN Library named the Jafet Library as a depository in Lebanon.

Al-Kulliyah - 1989