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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
To flourish, scholarship must have at hand in copious supply the recorded materials which advance its studies. The history of scholarship is consequently in large measure a history of the diffusion of the materials for scholarly research.
The invention of printing is of course the event which most dramatically accelerated this diffusion. But in our own day microphotography has had an effect of comparable importance. Because of microfilm and the related microphotographic processes any scholar or scholarly community may now have at hand at moderate expense what was previously reserved to a few, or—even more significant—what until recently was not conveniently accessible to any scholar no matter how great his independent means nor how ancient and rich his institution. Unpublished manuscripts scattered in dozens of repositories; printed works long out of print, unprocurable and dispersed; other sources so impermanent that deterioration erases them within a generation—for all of these microphotography has provided a means of diffusion for scholarly purposes where even printing has failed, and which is in some respects even superior to printing.
* July 1961, revised December 1963.
1 Ed. Richard W. Hale, Jr. (Ithaca, N. Y.: Cornell University Press for American Historical Association, 1961).
2 Dr. William S. Dix for the Association of Research Libraries, Dr. Boyd C. Shafer for the American Historical Association, and Dr. George Winchester Stone, Jr., for the Modern Language Association.
3 Dr. Waldo G. Leland, Director Emeritus of the American Council of Learned Societies, Chairman; Dr. W. Kaye Lamb, Dominion Archivist and National Librarian of Canada; Dr. Stephen A. McCarthy, Librarian of Cornell University; Boyd C. Shafer, Executive Secretary of the American Historical Association; Dr. George Winchester Stone, Jr., Executive Secretary of the Modern Language Association of America; and Dr. Louis B. Wright, Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library.
4 “Photocopying” as used in this report refers principally to micro-transparencies and micro-opaques; other photoduplication processes are involved only incidentally.
5 William J. Wilson, “A Plan for a Comprehensive Medico-Historical Library: Problems of Scope and Coverage,” Library Quarterly, XXI (October 1951), 249.
6 An exception is Grace Gardner Griffin, A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to American History in British Depositories Reproduced for the Division of Manuscripts of the Library of Congress (Washington, D. C., 1946). This work includes the Project A material together with the transcripts which preceded Project A and other microfilming which followed it.
7 A Guide to the Microfilm Collection of Early State Records, comp. William Sumner Jenkins, ed. Lillian A. Hamrick (Washington, D. C., 1950), and Supplement (Washington, D. C., 1951).
8 Julian P. Boyd, “A New Guide to the Indispensable Sources of Virginia History,” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., XV (January 1958), 5.
9 Preliminary Guide to the Microfilm Collection in the Bancroft Library, comp. Mary Ann Fisher (Berkeley, Calif., 1955).
10 Raymond J. Sontag, “The German Diplomatic Papers: Publication After Two World Wars,” American Historical Review, LXVIII (October 1962), 63–68, both explains and criticizes the program.
11 United States, Department of State, Historical Office, A Catalogue of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1920–1945, comp. and ed. George O. Kent (Stanford, Calif., 1962).
12 Guides to German Records Microfilmed at Alexandria, Va. (Washington, 1958–). To date 37 guides have appeared.
13 A Catalogue of Files and Microfilms of the German Foreign Ministry Archives, 1867–1920 (Washington, D. C., 1959).
14 Guides to these are: Cecil H. Uyehara, comp., Checklist of Archives in the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tokyo, Japan, 1868–1945, Microfilmed for the Library of Congress, 1949–1951 (Washington, D. C., 1954); John Young, comp., Checklist of Microfilm Reproductions of Selected Archives of the Japanese Army, Navy, and Other Government Agencies, 1868–1945 (Washington, D. C., 1959).
15 List of National Archives Microfilm Publications (Washington, D. C., 1961), pp. 211–218. For a résumé of archival microfilming activities in the states, see Dorothy K. Taylor, “State Microfilming Programs,” American Archivist, XXII (January 1959), 59–82.
16 The papers of 11 Presidents have so far been filmed; the printed indexes for 9 are available.
17 “Reproductions of Manuscripts and Rare Printed Books,” PMLA, LXV (April 1950), 289–338, lists material copied to 1 January 1950.
18 British Manuscripts Project: A Checklist of the Microfilms Prepared in England and Wales for the American Council of Learned Societies, 1941–1945, comp. Lester K. Born (Washington, D. C., 1955).
19 Since 1957 lists of material copies have appeared in Manuscripta.
20 Checklist of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the Greek and Armenian Patriarchates in Jerusalem, Microfilmed for the Library of Congress, 1949–50 (Washington, D. C., 1953); Checklist of Manuscripts in St. Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai, Microfilmed for the Library of Congress, 1950 (Washington, D. C., 1952); A Descriptive Checklist of Selected Manuscripts in the Monasteries of Mount Athos Microfilmed for the Library of Congress and the International Greek New Testament Project, 1952–1953 … comp. Ernest W. Saunders (Washington, D. C., 1957).
21 All commercial photocopyists issue catalogues or sales lists. Convenient summaries are in the Guide to Microforms in Print (Washington, D. C., 1961) and the Subject Guide to Microforms in Print, 1962–63 (Washington, D. C., 1962), both edited by Albert James Diaz and published by Microcard Editions, Inc.
22 The Bulletin, in turn, is an irregular appendix to the Library of Congress Information Bulletin. To date over 80 numbers have appeared, covering a wide range of photocopied material.
23 Eva M. Tilton, A Union List of Publications in Opaque Microforms (New York, 1959) and Supplement (New York, 1961) provide the widest coverage of micro-opaques.
24 Jewish Newspapers and Periodicals on Microfilm, Available at the American Jewish Periodical Center (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1957); Supplement (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1960).
24 a But see additional information in n. 33, p. 90.
25 List of Latin American Imprints Before 1800, Selected from Bibliographies of José Toribio Medina, Microfilmed by Brown University (Providence, R. I., 1952).
26 The UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries is the most useful source for information on photocopying activities abroad.
27 “List of Micro-Publishers,” UNESCO Bulletin for Libraries, XVI (July–August 1962), 198–205.
28 Lester K. Born, “Universal Guide to Catalogs of Manuscripts and Inventories of Archival Collections: A Proposal for Cooperative Listing,” College and Research Libraries, XVII (July 1956), 322–329.
29 Photographic News, 1859, quoted in Frederic Luther, Microfilm, A History, 1839–1900 (Annapolis, Md., 1959), p. 23.
30 Wesley Simonton, “The Bibliographical Control of Microforms,” Library Resources and Technical Services, VI (Winter 1962), 29–40.
31 Lester K. Born, “A National Plan for Extensive Microfilm Operations,” American Documentation, I (April 1950), 66–75.
32 Since the inception of the present study the need for such a center has been emphasized by a Conference on Copying European Manuscript Sources for American History held in April 1961. The Conference recommended the establishment of a center at the Library of Congress. An advisory committee has since elaborated certain of such a center's functions and operations in greater detail.
33 The Readex Microprint Corporation, in association with the American Antiquarian Society, has engaged in the production of microprint editions of early American newspapers, 1740–1820. A number of editions are available, others are in preparation, and several hundred additional titles are listed for reproduction on proper demand. A handsome, illustrated catalog has been published (Readex Microprint Corporation, 5 Union Square, New York, N.Y.).
34 The preparation of the present report and its distribution were made possible by a grant to the American Council of Learned Societies from the Council on Library Resources, Inc.
