2,800 children’s books donated to Smathers Libraries
Dr. Robert Egolf of Ocala has donated more than 2,800 children’s books to the George A. Smathers Libraries’ Baldwin Library of Historical Children’s Literature. The collection spans the the years 1807-2003 and includes many first editions and all of the prestigious Caldecott Medal winners.
A reception will be held Monday, March 5 at 10:00 a.m. with a brief program at 10:30 in Smathers Library to commemorate the gift.
The donation brings the total volumes of the Baldwin Library to 103,000. The Baldwin Library contains books published in Great Britain and the United States from the early 1700s through the present. Its holdings of more than 800 early American imprints is the second largest such collection in the U.S. Begun by Ruth Baldwin, this assemblage of literature, printed primarily for children, offers many topics for research: education and upbringing, family and gender roles, civic values, racial, religious, and moral attitudes, literary style and format, and the arts of illustrations and book design. A great strength of the collection is the many English and American editions of the same work - for example, 300 editions of Robinson Crusoe.
