Dartmouth College Library
Collection Management & Development Program
Collection Development Policy
MANUSCRIPTS:
STEFANSSON COLLECTION
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- COLLECTION AREA
- GENERAL PURPOSE
- DARTMOUTH COLLEGE PROGRAM
- GENERAL SUBJECT BOUNDARIES
- LANGUAGES
- GEOGRAPHIC AREAS
- TYPES OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- FORMAT OF MATERIALS COLLECTED
- SUBJECT AREAS COLLECTED
- OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE
- CREATION DATE
- REVISION DATE
- LC CLASS
- BIBLIOGRAPHER
Manuscripts:
Stefansson Collection on Polar Resources
The collection was created and developed by Vilhjalmur Stefansson as his personal library from roughly 1925 through 1951. At that time, it was transferred to Dartmouth College, primarily to support the Northern Studies Program at the College. The collection was purchased by the College in 1952 and has been a part of the Special Collections since that time.
The collection supports instruction and research in history, geography, environmental studies, earth sciences, anthropology, biology and Native American studies on the undergraduate level. Further, it supports research on the graduate level in engineering and earth sciences.
In addition, the collection, since it maintains an international reputation as one of the three or four finest collections on polar exploration, is used by scholars and students throughout the world. In particular, materials are of use to the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratories and to the Center for Northern Studies in Wolcott, Vermont.
While there is no general program for Northern Studies, there are numerous courses within several disciplines to which this collection is germane. Included in this are graduate and undergraduate courses in engineering and earth science and undergraduate courses in anthropology, environmental studies, history, geography, Native American studies, and biology. In addition, there is the new graduate program in Cold Regions Science and Engineering and the Institute of Arctic Studies.
The broad subject area of this collection is the discovery and exploration of the northern and southern polar regions with the bulk of the collection relating to the north. Materials are divided evenly between pre-twentieth and the twentieth century. Included in the resources are printed materials, manuscripts and bodies of papers relating to history, geography, geology, transportation, ethnohistory, ethnoarchaeology, language and linguistics. Journals and serials are to be found in the Library's general collection.
The primary language of the collection is English. At the same time, there are many materials in Russian, the Scandinavian languages, French and German. There is no language restriction for the collection.
The geographical areas for the collection are lands above 60o North latitude and below 50o South latitude. The latter is defined as the area encompassing Tierra del Fuego. The main concentration of the collection is on the Arctic regions of North America.
The chronological boundaries are materials relating to events in the Arctic before 1925 and in the Antarctic before 1940.
Manuscripts of any type and form are collected so long as they are originals. The collection no longer accepts photocopies of materials and microforms have been transferred to the Jones Microtext Center. Manuscripts are defined as any material that is created by hand -- holograph, typescript, computer tape, and the like -- as a unique copy as opposed to a mass produced item.
Printed material may be of any type; the emphasis is on books (including journals) in standard format, as well as pamphlets and broadsides. Photographs, especially earlier ones, are collected. The collection contains artifacts ranging from harpoons to a kayak; these are not now actively sought.
The collection will acquire any and all manuscript materials that fall into its scope as defined in sections III, IV, V, VI, VII, and those printed materials which would build upon the research nature of the collection.
For other resources in the Dartmouth College Library, the reader is referred to the Polar Regions policy. Aside from collections at the University of Alaska, the Arctic Institute of North America and at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England, there are no institutions in the western world that would affect collection activity.
March 31, 1982 (Philip N. Cronenwett)
March 1991 (Philip N. Cronenwett)
Philip N. Cronenwett
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Last updated September 27, 1996 by: CMDC@Dartmouth.Edu (mjs)