MORGAN PHOTOGRAPHS BOUGHT FOR LIBRARY

Twenty-seven volumes, containing more than 8,000 photographs of nineteenth century figures, have been purchased by the University Library. The set, which was originally ordered for the library of the elder J. P. Morgan just before his death, was published by Frederick Hill Meserve, authority on Lincolnia, in 1913.

The collection contains a volume, devoted to Lincoln, his family, his Cabinet, and the persons and places with which he was intimately associated. Not only do they possess historical significance, but they are some of the first instances of wet plate photography as practised by Matthew B. Brady.

Each plate in the set, which was conceived after the Lincoln volume was contemplated, is a print made from the original negative and pasted in. Some of the figures in the rest of the set include: Henry Clay, Queen Victoria, "Boss" Tweed, John Jacob Astor, Emperor Maximilian of Maxico, and Oscar Wilde.

The indexed volumes are divided by professions. The other three copies belong to the New York State Library, the New York Historical Society, and John Gribbel, of Philadelphia.