Mason Libraries are fostering preservation awareness by looking at The History of Paper, an exhibit celebrating the invention, development and use of this flexible and useful medium. The exhibit highlights the history of paper and the papermaking process, showcases a small number of the more than 5,000 products made of paper, and concludes with information on the preservation of paper. On display through the end of the month, The History of Paper exhibit is in Fenwick Library, 2nd Floor, Wing C. Please join us at a reception on Monday, May 13, at 2:00 pm; light refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact Lene Palmer, Preservation Librarian, lenep at gmu.edu.
Category Archives: News
Libraries announce John N. Warfield Endowment
The University Libraries announce The John N. Warfield Endowment for the Libraries established by Rosamond A. Warfield, widow of Dr. John N. Warfield. The endowment provides permanent and consistent funding for the preservation of the existing John N. Warfield Collection gifted in 2000, and for its expansion through the acquisition of scholarly research materials in subject areas of greatest interest to the late Professor Warfield, who passed away in 2009. During his sixty-year career, Dr. Warfield was a pioneer in the field of computers and Systems Science, an interdisciplinary field, which studies complex systems in nature, human interaction, and science.
Congratulations, Dr. Cabrera!
The University Libraries extend Greetings and Congratulations to Ángel Cabrera, PhD on his Inauguration as the Sixth President of George Mason University.
University Libraries Acquires Mason Family Account Book
The George Mason University Libraries has acquired an important late 18th-century manuscript with handwritten entries by the George Mason family. Previously, the university owned only three single-page original documents directly related to its namesake, George Mason IV.
“The Mason family account book is not only an important historical resource, but has immense symbolic significance for Mason,” notes John Zenelis, university librarian. “We are thrilled that this important Virginiana manuscript has been repatriated, particularly to this part of the Commonwealth where the extended Mason family lived.”
The University Libraries purchased the 220-year-old Mason family account book last summer through an antiquarian dealer in Boston. The acquisition was facilitated through the generosity of the Washington and Northern Virginia Company of The Jamestowne Society, an organization dedicated to preserving the historical record of early Virginia.
The book documents the business, family and personal accounts of Stevens Thomson Mason (1760-1803) and his son, Armistead Thompson Mason (1787-1819), respectively the nephew and grandnephew of George Mason IV. The Virginia Historical Document Collection and the account book can be examined at the Fenwick Library on the Fairfax Campus. The Mason Family Manuscript Account Book can also be seen online.