Funded by donations, the Hill Memorial Library preserves Louisiana history

The Hill Memorial Library has been part of the University for 85 years, but many students still don't know the history in its stacks.

Funded completely by donations, the Hill — also known as Special Collections — stores a wide array of rare and valuable historical materials, ranging from a first edition of Samuel Johnson's "History of the English Language" to the manuscripts of Louisiana natives.

The library requires a certain amount of security because the items are rare, said Elaine Smyth, head of Special Collections.

Visitors must sign in at the front and wear an ID badge at all times. Personal belongings are stored in a locker, and no materials can be taken outside the building.

People aren't allowed to roam the stacks. Visitors instead request certain items the staff retrieves and brings back to the Reading Room.

The temperature must remain at 70 degrees, and the humidity levels are kept between 50 and 55 percent. Lighting is also highly regulated to protect the materials.

"A lot of people might get turned off by our security," said Tara Laver, curator of manuscripts. "But if they knew what was in here, I think they'd understand."

WHAT'S INSIDE

People from all over the world visit the Hill to access the library's unique collections.

The three main collections are the

Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, the Rare Book Collection and the E.A. McIlhenny Natural History Collection.

"They all have different focuses," Smyth said.

The LLMV Collection includes books, periodicals, maps, prints, state documents and newspapers documenting the history and culture of the region.

The collection is the largest accumulation of materials on Louisiana and the lower Mississippi Valley in existence, Smyth said.

"Anyone interested in Louisiana is going to find we have great resources for them," Smyth said. "We frequently have people from France and French-speaking countries use our materials."

The collection includes a set of letters written to William Claiborne, the first governor of Louisiana, detailing the encounters with the Spanish as America was trying to establish a government.

The Rare Book Collection is an accumulation of rare and valuable materials of various topics.

"The collection focuses on older books," Smyth said. "The oldest one we have dates back to 1476."

Shakespeare's "Second Folio" is also in the Rare Books Collection.

"Shakespeare is this iconic figure in the history of English literature," Smyth said. "You could say he's ‘The Man.'"

One item that receives a lot of attention is known as the "bloody book."

The book, written by Jean-Baptiste Labat, is believed to have the bloodstains of Jean-Paul Marat, the French revolutionary stabbed to death in his bathtub.

"It's very odd, and there's no way to know for sure if it's really his blood," Smyth said. "It will always be an interesting story."

The McIlhenny Collection contains botanical and ornithological illustrations and materials.

This collection houses the single most expensive item in the library: the "Elephant Folio" in John James Audubon's "Birds of America."

"It's a great work of art and historical document," Smyth said. "It took a monumental effort to publish it and 11 years to produce."

Smyth said individual plates of the folio can cost as much as $100,000, and a copy of the publication sold for $8 million in an auction.

Smyth said there are few copies in circulation, and the Hill owns 120 separate plates.

DONATIONS

The Hill operates solely through donations.

Smyth said the library usually receives donations from 30 to 40 people and organizations a year, and most of the donations are "in kind" – donations of books and manuscript collections.

She said monetary donations range from $25 to $99,000, and the largest donation was $3 million from Mary Garrett Hauer, former faculty member.

Most donations are manuscripts to the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collection, Laver said.

"It's amazing some of the routes these things take to get here," Laver said.

She said donations come from all over the country, although most come from the Baton Rouge area.

One such donor is Mary Anne Frenzel, a Baton Rouge resident who donated a set of family papers to the Hill in 2008.

Frenzel said the collection serves as a visual record of five generations of her family, dating back to the 1860s.

The majority of the material documents the life and times of Elizabeth Hynes, Frenzel's mother and University alumna, including her childhood, marriage, travels and family, as well as the social life of Baton Rouge.

"It's just been exciting because for the first time, I have my whole family together pictorially," Frenzel said. "Now it's up to my children and grandchildren to continue this record."

Frenzel and her husband, Michael, are currently working on their second donation to the Hill.

"Michael was in the Air Force for 20 years, so this collection tracks a Louisiana couple through the military," Frenzel said.

Laver said the collections are a good historical documentation of the social life and customs in Baton Rouge over time.

"It gives the donators comfort that their materials will be taken care of here," she said. "If they put their stuff here, it's like their family will always be here."

Laura Mullen, English

professor, has also donated materials to the Hill.