Preserving the Salisbury Collection in Near Eastern Studies

FAIN: PA-51385-05

Yale University (New Haven, CT 06510-1703)
Roberta S. Pilette (Project Director: July 2004 to September 2007)

The preservation microfilming and cataloging of 2,500 of the 16,000 embrittled volumes in the Edward E. Salisbury Collection of Arabic languages and culture, and minor conservation treatment of an additional 1,400 volumes.

The Salisbury Collection began in 1870 with a gift from Edward Elbridge Salisbury, the first professor of Arabic Languages and Culture at Yale College. It has grown over the years into a comprehensive collection of foundational works on Islamic law, history, religion, science, mathematics and poetry, along with a large collection of European imprints that document European scholars' first systematic study of Arab religions, language and cultures. The project will enable us to repair those items that are repairable, mass deacidify those volumes that are on acidic paper but have not yet become brittle, and to microfilm those volumes that can no longer be handled without losing information due to brittleness or fragility.