May Collection Designated a National Treasure

In 1999, Cornell University Library received a $331,000 grant to preserve the Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection. The grant was awarded through the “Save America's Treasures” initiative, a public-private partnership between the White House Millennium Council and National Trust for Historic Preservation, administered by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This grant provided resources to enhance access to the collection through cataloging, conservation, and digitization. As a result, the pamphlets in Samuel J. May's great Anti-Slavery library are now available as electronic searchable text for the first time. The May Anti-Slavery pamphlets can be accessed through Cornell Library’s on-line Gateway via ENCompass, a digital library management system developed through a partnership between Cornell University Library and Endeavor Information Systems.

• Anti-Slavery Collections at Cornell
• Samuel J. May Anti-Slavery Collection
• May Collection Designated a National Treasure

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