Among Friends Volume 14, Number 2, Spring 2000

The Ames Exhibit Comes to the Hay
Samuel Streit

Mark your calendars for April 27. As of that date, one of the Library's most important recent acquisitions will be on exhibit, the Robert S. and Margaret A. Ames Collection of Nineteenth Century Illustrated Books. To celebrate the opening, Ron Tyler of the University of Texas at Austin and a world-renowned expert on the subject of western American art, will deliver a talk at 8:00 p.m. in the Lownes Room of the John Hay Library. For those Friends who are interested in art, the American west, or the illustrated book, April 27 should prove to be a most enjoyable evening.

The Ames Collection was assembled over a thirty year period and built around three distinct but related ideas; the history of the illustration, particularly nineteenth century books illustrated with wood or steel engravings or by lithography; the literature of travel and exploration, with preference given to the North American continent; and pictorial representations of areas in which the Ames family lived before their arrival in Providence in 1970. The Ames Collection is notable for the degree to which it adds new titles to the Brown Library, the extent to which it complements other Brown holdings, both in the John Hay Library and in Government Documents, and for its superb physical condition.

Bob and Margaret Ames are well-known to Friends members. Bob has been Friends Board Vice-Chairman since the early 1980's and throughout that time he had been a valued supporter of the Library. One particularly notable example of Bob's efforts on our behalf was the instrumental role he played, while Executive Vice President for Aerospace at Textron, Inc., in the donation of the massive archive of the Gorham Silver Company (then a Textron subsidiary) to the John Hay Library. Margaret, in addition to working with Bob in building the Ames Collection of Printed Books, is also a noted authority on, and collector of, early American needlework samplers. The Library's thanks go to both Bob and Margaret, not only for this latest gift, but for their many years of support and friendship which have greatly enriched the Library and the University.

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