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The rising demand for information and the advancing reputation of the University
have created a great opportunity for the Library to move into the first rank
of academic libraries in the country. The history of the Library to this point
is filled with stories of concerned individuals and groups fostering the continuing
growth of collections and services. Efforts to create a college library began
even before Columbian College (now The George Washington University) was founded
in 1821. In the early years, the collection expanded mostly through gifts from
faculty members and college officials. Dr. William G. Staughton, the school’s
first president, made many personal donations to the Library and used his position
for furthering its development. When he sent two professors to England and
the Continent to obtain scientific equipment in 1822-23, he also asked them
to buy books for the college library. After four years, the Library collection
had grown to 3,034 volumes. More than 1,200 of those original volumes are preserved
today in the Special Collections Department.
Typical of American institutions of higher education in the 19th century,
significant growth of library collection was not emphasized. Most students
were not expected to do library research. Instead, they were expected to memorize
the material presented to them in the lectures of their professors. When research
became a part of the college experience in the late 19th century, the school’s
location in a city rich in libraries discouraged rapid growth of the University’s
own library collection.
During the first decade of the 20th century, however, the library collection
expanded due largely to the interest of the particular faculty member, Alfred
F. W. Schmidt. Schmidt, University Librarian and Professor of Classical and
Germanic languages, purchased several important collections. In 1906, he acquired
the 7,200 volume library of Professor Heinzel of the University of Vienna. This
library contained books and pamphlets of German language and literature as
well as materials on Anglo-Saxon, Old English, and Slavic languages. The following
year, Schmidt acquired the 7,900 volume library of Professor Curt Wachsmuth
of the University of Leipzig, containing materials on Greek and Roman philology,
literature, archeology, and history.
President Cloyd Heck Marvin, inaugurated in 1927, undertook a plan to bring
the university curriculum and facilities up to 20th-century standards. A major
part of the plan was the construction of a library building, the first in the
University’s history. In the fall semester of 1939, the Lisner Library,
located on G Street between 20th and 21st streets, opened. The facility had a total
of six floors and was entirely dedicated to library offices and stacks, which
housed a collection of 119,000 volumes.
By 1954, the Library contained 270,000 volumes. One major increase came through
the 1950 purchase of the library of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, adding more than 50,000 volumes to the stacks of both the Lisner Library
and the Burns Library at the National Law Center.
In 1950, Matilda Wright donated to the Library her brother’s collection
of material on Washington, D.C., history. As the finest privately held collection
of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, photographs, and artwork on the topic, these
1,500 items formed the core around which the Special Collections Department
was built.
Despite this progress, the University Library compared unfavorably to other
universities in terms of funding, staff, and collections. This was due to the
faulty belief that the rich library resources of Washington were accessible
to GW students and faculty as a substitute for onsite collections.
It was not until the beginning of Lloyd H. Elliott’s presidency, in
1965, however, that significant improvement began to be made. Elliott declared
that the development of a true research library for the University was his
first priority. In 1966, he implemented a plan to increase the book budget.
He also set up a building committee to develop a new research library building
that could hold 1,000,000 volumes and seat 2,500 readers. The new Gelman Library
opened in the fall of 1973 with a collection of 429,778 volumes. The following
year, the collection passed the 500,000 volume mark. Mrs. Estelle Gelman, endowed the Library with $1,500,000 for unrestricted library development in 1980. The Library recognized the importance of her contribution by naming the University Library in honor of her late husband, Melvin Gelman. In 1984, Gelman Library
marked the addition of its one-millionth volume to the collection and the library
has been expanding rapidly ever since. A major acquisition was a gift
from Ari and Phyllis Kiev of the I. Edward Kiev Collection on Judaica, which
contains more than 20,000 volumes on religion, philosophy, classics and art.
In 2001, the Gelman Library raised funds for the two-millionth volume, An
Illustrated Atlas; Geographical Statistical and Historical, of the Unites States,
and the Adjacent Countries by T. G. Bradford; Boston, Weeks, Jordan [1838],
and the two-million-and-first volume, Web of Science. The official Two-millionth
Volume of The Gelman Library System is a rare book acquired through a gift
from James Cecil King, a grateful alumnus, professor emeritus, bibliophile,
writer and an ardent patron of The Melvin Gelman Library.
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