Princeton receives largest gift in history: A rare collection
Princeton becomes owner of a rare book and manuscript collection - including the first six printed editions of The Bible - valued at nearly $300 million. Though privately owned, the collection has been housed and accessible at Princeton since1959.
Princeton on Monday announced its largest gift in history: a rare book and manuscript collection from the late William H. Scheide, a 1936 alum, valued at nearly $300 million.
The 2,500-volume collection including the first six printed editions of the Bible, the original printing of the Declaration of Independence and Beethoven's autograph music sketchbook has been housed and accessible at Princeton's Firestone Library since 1959 when Scheide had it moved there from his hometown of Titusville, Pa.
Scheide, a musician, musicologist, bibliophile and philanthropist, died in November at age 100 and left ownership of the collection to Princeton.
Other items in the collection, according to the university, are: "Shakespeare's first, second, third and fourth folios; significant autograph music manuscripts of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert and Wagner; a lengthy autograph speech by Abraham Lincoln from 1856 on the problems of slavery; and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's original letter and telegram copy books from the last weeks of the Civil War."
"Through Bill Scheide's generosity, one of the greatest collections of rare books and manuscripts in the world today will have a permanent home here," Princeton President Christopher L. Eisgruber said in a statement. "It will stand as a defining collection for Firestone Library and Princeton University..."