The William L. Bryant Foundation, in setting up an organization in Spain in the early 1950s for the conducting of archaeological investigations, engaged a young man, José Gonzalez Guijarro, at the time serving as Secretary of the Minister of Fine Arts in Madrid, to act as agent in Spain for the Foundation.

Señor Guijarro had sent me several hundred publications, mainly in the field of archaeology, and this furnished a background for a developing interest in books on the unique aspects of the Spanish culture.

I consulted the late Harold Goddard Rugg, Associate Librarian at Dartmouth College Library, regarding a possible interest of that library in a collection of Spanish books. Mr. Rugg had taught me a love of books in a course he gave in my undergraduate days at the College in the early 1920s. He was enthusiastic about the possibilities of such a collection and thus, with the approval of Richard W. Morin, the Librarian, we set up a system for the acquisition of these books.

Señor Guijarro undertook to send us catalogs from booksellers in Madrid, Barcelona, Valladolid, Valencia, Zaragoza, Malaga, Palma, etc. I scanned these titles by the hundred thousands, marking items of interest, and sent the catalogs to the Library, which undertook the responsibility of ordering and processing those volumes finally received.

This work began in 1952 and we still continue to add to the collection today, although the greater part of the volumes were acquired during the first five years. There are about three thousand books.

Since Mr. Rugg's death in 1958 his successor, Edward Connery Lathem, now Librarian, has guided the management of the collection with warm appreciation, while the books have entered the Library's possession under the auspices of The Friends of the Dartmouth Library, a group which at that time was so ably headed by Professor Herbert Faulkner West.

Those early years, not long after the close of the Spanish Civil War, were particularly suitable for the acquisition of books from Spain. Not many foreign institutions, as yet, had renewed their contacts and the prices were therefore very reasonable. The situation has changed drastically during the twenty years since we began to acquire these books. The competition is now world-wide among the older libraries--and many of the newer ones--with the result that prices have increased manyfold.

We have listed the titles in seventy-odd categories in a way we hope will render them easily accessible to scholars and researchers. There is an emphasis on regional material, archaeology, relations between Spain and her neighbors (France, Italy, Portugal), Spain's former African possessions, the Arabic culture, philology, sixteenth-century books, and bibliographies. Also, many special aspects of Spanish culture are substantially covered, such as Basques, gypsies, Visigoths, prehistory, bullfighting, numismatics, and paleography.

Many of these volumes are unique inasmuch as they represent the only copy in existence within this country.

William J. Bryant
1973