Three-Millionth Volume
1991 marked the addition of the third-millionth volume and the selection was The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles: with the names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from their first beginning, Ano: 1584 to 1624 by Captain John Smith, 1580-1631. The book was presented at the annual dinner of the Howe Society, the support organization for the Department of Special and Area Studies Collections, which partially funded the purchase.
John Smith, (1580-1631), The Generall Historie
of Virginia, New England, and the Summer isles: with the names of the
Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from their first beginning, Ano: 1584, to
this present 1624. With the Procedings of those Severall Colonies and the
Accidents that befell them in all their Journyes and Discoveries. Also the Maps
and Descriptions of all those Countryes, their Commodities, people, Government,
Customes, and Religion yet knowne. Divided into sixe Bookes. By Captaine Iohn
Smith sometymes Governour in those Countryes & Admirall of New England.
London, Printed by I. D. and I. H. for Michael Sparkes, 1624.
John Smith, the de facto leader of the first English colony to survive in Virginia, was a tireless promoter of English settlement. His Generall Historie (first edition 1624), frequently republished in the 17th century, narrates his exploits and urges the English to invest human and economic capital in North America.