Cornell’s First University Librarian

Hand-drawn Revolutionary War Map.
Providence, Rhode Island, 1778.

In 1872, Willard Fiske acquired for the Library the Jared Sparks collection of American history. Sparks, a historian and former President of Harvard University, had developed a rich research collection on all aspects of American history. Highlights of the collection include papers gathered for work on his twelve-volume Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, and books on Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and James Madison, as well as hand-drawn Revolutionary-era maps.