Lecture: Holland Society on Dutch Antiquarian Books

A Secret Gilded Age Library Rooted in 17th-Century New York. A secret library belongs to the Holland Society of New York, a historical and genealogical society founded in 1885 that documents the legacy of North America's earliest Dutch settlers. Sarah Bogart Cooney, the society's Executive Director, will lecture on its Grotius Collection of books, tucked away at Columbia University. The tomes were purchased in 1890 by Robert Barnwell Roosevelt, a Holland Society member and ex-Minister to the Hague, from Bom and Bom Book Dealers in Amsterdam. The collection is rich in first editions, including 17th-century publications by the eminent Elzevir dynasty of printers. Since 1901, the books have been on deposit in Columbia's Rare Book and Manuscript Library: a ghost collection with no presence in Columbia's library catalogue. Recent efforts by the Holland Society and Columbia librarians have brought new exposure to this collection, and collaboration has begun to rescue them from "the oblivion of their present situation."

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