News Release — November 10, 2006

Mellon Foundation Grant Helps Preserve and Catalog Ransom Center's French Materials

With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of The University of Texas at Austin has completed work to preserve and catalog a large portion of the center's modern French literary manuscript and visual arts holdings.

The award made possible the arranging, housing and description of five sizable modern French collections, specifically the Ransom Center's Carlton Lake collection, widely recognized as one of the finest research collections of modern French materials outside of France; the Princess Marthe Bibesco papers; the William Bradley Literary Agency records; the Edouard Dujardin papers and the Artine Artinian collection.

The collections include diverse works in history, literature, music, philosophy, photography, religion and women's studies by such important literary and cultural figures as Charles Baudelaire, Samuel Beckett, Jean Cocteau, Georges Hugnet, Valentine Hugo, James Joyce, Pierre Louÿs, Henry Miller, Henri-Pierre Roché, Maurice Saillet, Erik Satie, Gertrude Stein and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

"This grant improved access to important collections that constitute a major scholarly resource in French culture," said Thomas F. Staley, director of the Ransom Center. "The support of the Mellon Foundation not only provides students, researchers and the general public access to a wealth of research materials, but also ensures the preservation of these valued resources."

"The Mellon Foundation's support funded the Ransom Center's archival staff, computer equipment and preservation supplies for the two-year project," said Joan Sibley, head of the Ransom Center's department of archives and visual materials cataloging. "Their generosity provided us the tools to share these remarkable collections."

The department created archival finding aids for each collection, including biographical sketches, scope and content notes, series descriptions and detailed indices of manuscript titles, correspondents and photographic materials present in the collections.