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Burndy Library

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Burndy Library
LocationUnited States
Established1941
Dissolved2006

The Burndy Library was one of the world's largest collections of books on the history of science and technology.[1] It was disestablished in 2006 and its collections transferred to the Huntington Library.

History

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Founded in 1941 in Norwalk, Connecticut by the electrical engineer, industrialist, and historian Bern Dibner,[2] the library holdings include important scientific literature from antiquity to the 20th century.[3] Highlights of the collection include one of the world's most complete sets of the works of Isaac Newton, including books owned and annotated by Newton, as well as some sixty manuscripts by Newton, multiple books about Leonardo da Vinci, all of Darwin's works, and important manuscript and print materials by Louis Pasteur, a 1544 edition of Archimedes' mathematical text Philosophi ac Geometrae and many important original works from the 18th and 19th centuries.[3][4] Generally, the collection's strengths are in the early modern period, and include strong holdings in the history of mathematics, astronomy, and color theory.[4]

The "Burndy" appellation was invented by Dibner and represents a portmanteau or blend of his first and last names.[3][5]

The library was originally located at the Burndy Engineering Company in Norwalk, Connecticut.[3] In 1974 Dibner donated one-quarter of the library holdings to the Smithsonian Institution to form the nucleus of its research library in the history of science and technology.[6] In 1976, the Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology opened at the Smithsonian Institution, and it remains part of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries housed at the National Museum of American History, Behring Center in Washington, DC.[3][4]

The remainder of the Burndy Library collection remained in Norwalk until after Bern Dibner's death in 1988. It was moved to the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1992 with the establishment of the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology.[7][6] After residing there for more than a decade, the collection needed to be moved due to the pending demolition of the building which housed it.[8]

In November 2006, 67,000 volumes of the Burndy Library (47,000 rare books and 20,000 reference books), along with several hundred small manuscript collections and a collection of artwork and objects, were transferred to the Huntington Library in San Marino, California as a gift of the Dibner family and the Dibner Fund.[9] The library offers a number of history of science fellowships, a lecture series and an annual conference.[10] It is one of the Huntington's most heavily used collections, and continues to grow and expand through the Huntington's multi-faceted approach to collection use, conservation and management.

References

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  1. ^ Lewis, Daniel (2008). "Beautiful Ideas; Beautiful Books" (PDF). Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  2. ^ "Bern Dibner Dies at 90; Historian and Engineer". The New York Times. January 8, 1988. Archived from the original on January 30, 2018. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e Cohen, I Bernard (1985). "Inside The Burndy Library". American Heritage's Invention & Technology. 1 (2). Archived from the original on September 21, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "Dibner Library of the History of Science and Technology". Smithsonian Libraries. Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  5. ^ "COMPANY NEWS; Burndy Takes Bid From Framatome". The New York Times. Reuters. December 6, 1988. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 1, 2022.
  6. ^ a b Schackner, Bill (January 9, 2005). "Burndy Library/Dibner Institute Of MIT May Move To Pittsburgh". History News Network. Archived from the original on October 23, 2022. Retrieved October 22, 2022.
  7. ^ Lerner, Jane (September 15, 1991). "A Collection of Scientific Treasures Is Leaving Norwalk". The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  8. ^ "New home for Dibner trees". MIT Tech Talk. December 20, 2006. Archived from the original on February 3, 2022. Retrieved August 13, 2022.
  9. ^ "PAGING BURNDY LIBRARY BOOKS". The Huntington Library. Retrieved June 13, 2009.
  10. ^ Dibner History of Science Program.
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