Harry Ransom Center
The Harry Ransom Center in June 2012
30°17′04″N97°44′28″W / 30.28444°N 97.74111°W /30.28444; -97.74111
Location	Austin, Texas, U.S., US
Type	Academic library
Established	1957
Other information
Affiliation	University of Texas at Austin
Website	www.hrc.utexas.edu

TheHarry Ransom Center, known as theHumanities Research Center until 1983, is anarchive,library, andmuseum at theUniversity of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from theAmericas andEurope for the purpose of advancing the study of thearts andhumanities. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literarymanuscripts, one millionrare books, five millionphotographs, and more than 100,000 works ofart.^[1]

The center has a reading room for scholars and galleries which display rotating exhibitions of works and objects from the collections. In the 2015–16 academic year, the center hosted nearly 6,000 research visits, resulting in the publication of over 145 books.^[2]

Harry Ransom founded the Humanities Research Center in 1957 with the ambition of expanding the rare books and manuscript holdings of the University of Texas. He acquired the Edward Alexander Parsons Collection,^[3] the T. Edward Hanley Collection,^[4] and theNorman Bel Geddes Collection.^[5][6]

Ransom was only the official director of the center from 1958 to 1961, but he directed and presided over a period of great expansion in the collections until his resignation in 1971 as chancellor of theUniversity of Texas System. The center moved into its current building in 1972.

F. Warren Roberts was the official director from 1961 to 1976. He acquired theHelmut Gernsheim collection of photographs and the archives of authorsD. H. Lawrence,John Steinbeck, andEvelyn Waugh, and in 1968 theCarlton Lake Collection.^[7]

After Roberts's tenure, John Payne and then Carlton Lake served as interim directors from 1976 to 1980. In 1978, the center acquired its complete copy of theGutenberg Bible.

In 1980, the center hiredDecherd Turner as director. Turner acquired the Giorgio Uzielli Collection ofAldine editions,^[8] theAnne Sexton archive, theRobert Lee Wolff Collection of 19th-century fiction, thePforzheimer Collection,^[9] theDavid O. Selznick archive, theGloria Swanson archive, and theErnest Lehman Collection.^[10] Upon Decherd Turner's retirement in 1988, Thomas F. Staley became director of the center.^[11]

Staley acquired theWoodward andBernstein Watergate Papers,^[12] a copy of thePlantin Polyglot Bible, and more than 100 literary archives.

In September 2013, Stephen Enniss, former head librarian of theFolger Shakespeare Library, was appointed director of the Ransom Center.^[13] Under Enniss, the Ransom Center continued to collect archives, including those ofKazuo Ishiguro,^[14]Arthur Miller,^[15] andIan McEwan.^[16]

In 1983, the institution's name was changed from the Humanities Research Center to the Harry Ransom Center.^[17]

Two prominent items in the Ransom Center's collections are aGutenberg Bible,^[18][19] one of 21 complete copies known to exist, andNicéphore Niépce'sc. 1826View from the Window at Le Gras, the first successful permanent photograph from nature. Both of these objects are on permanent display in the main lobby.

The center also houses many culturally important documents and artifacts. Particular strengths include modern literature, performing arts,^[20] and photography.^[21] Besides the Gutenberg Bible and the photograph, notable holdings include:

• Three copies of the 1623First Folio ofWilliam Shakespeare's plays
• A suppressed 1865 first edition ofAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, one of only 23 copies known to exist
• The first edition of the 1572 Portuguese bookOs Lusíadas, byLuis de Camões
• The personal libraries of writers such asGabriel García Márquez,Alice Corbin Henderson,Ezra Pound,Evelyn Waugh,David Foster Wallace, and the Coleridge family
• Extensive manuscript collections ofGeorge Atherton Aitken,Julia Alvarez,Julian Barnes,Marthe Bibesco,Elizabeth Bowen,T. C. Boyle,Lewis Carroll,J. M. Coetzee,Billy Collins,Aleister Crowley,Don DeLillo,Gabriel García Márquez,Erle Stanley Gardner,Graham Greene,Kazuo Ishiguro,James Joyce,Pamela Hansford Johnson,D. H. Lawrence,T. E. Lawrence,Doris Lessing,Norman Mailer,Carson McCullers,Ian McEwan,McSweeney's,Brian Moore,Anne Sexton,David Foster Wallace, andT.H. White
• Edgar Allan Poe's writing desk
• A large collection of rare and valuablecomic books
• A writing journal kept byJack Kerouac in preparation for writingOn the Road (1957)
• The Cardigan manuscript ofChaucer'sCanterbury Tales
• A rare 1904 first edition ofThe Book of the Law (Liber AL) byAleister Crowley (among other original Crowley first editions), also known as the Vellum books but more popularly known as the Holy Book of Thelema
• Tarot cards hand-colored byAleister Crowley
• TheThomas James Wise collection of bibliographies and catalogs created by Wise and miscellaneous manuscripts and correspondence relating to Wise's forgeries and life.
• The records of theAlfred A. Knopf, a publishing company

• The papers ofStella Adler,Frith Banbury,Sebastian Barry,Samuel Beckett,Paul Bowles,Richard Buckle,Edward Gordon Craig,T. S. Eliot,Harry Frazee,Spalding Gray,David Hare,Lillian Hellman,Harry Houdini,Anne Jackson,Adrienne Kennedy,David Mamet,Terrence McNally,Arthur Miller,John Osborne,Peter O'Toole,J. B. Priestley,James Purdy,James Roose-Evans,George Bernard Shaw,Sam Shepard,Tom Stoppard,Jule Styne,Laurette Taylor,Eli Wallach,Jerome Weidman,Arnold Wesker,Tennessee Williams,Sandy Wilson,Audrey Wood, and many others.
• The organizational archives ofB. J. Simmons & Company,Theatre Guild, and theCollege of Fellows of the American Theatre.
• An extensive library of early modern plays and theatrical books including threeShakespeareFirst Folios and one of only three known copies of the 1594 quarto of theTrue Tragedie of Richard the Third published by an anonymous writer.
• A historic collection of 19th- and 20th-century portrait photography of actors and dancers, and production photography holdings including Joseph Abeles and Leo Friedman,Fred Fehl, and Bob Golby.
• Design archives ofNorman Bel Geddes, Gordon Conway, Eldon Elder, andBoris Aronson.
• David Garrick's diary from his 1751 trip to Paris, which formerly belonged toHarry Houdini.
• John Wilkes Booth's personal productionpromptbook forRichard III.
• Original costumes from theBallets Russes including pieces fromNarcisse andThe Rite of Spring. Design holdings include two ofPablo Picasso's costume designs and a set design fromThe Three-Cornered Hat.
• The original manuscripts forGeorge Aiken's 1852 stage adaptation ofUncle Tom's Cabin and the archive of its producing company,George C. Howard.
• A 1730 manuscript ofGeorge Frideric Handel'sCoronation Anthems made by his principal copyist.

• The papers ofJay Presson Allen,Lewis Allen,Robert De Niro,^[23]Edward Carrick,Nicholas Ray,Alfred Junge,Ernest Lehman,Lorne Michaels,^[24]Nicholas Ray,David O. Selznick,Gloria Swanson, andKing Vidor
• Selected costumes, script drafts,storyboards, and audition media fromGone with the Wind. These are part of theDavid O. Selznick Collection
• Unusedprops designed bySalvador Dalí to have been used in the dream sequence in the 1945 filmSpellbound
• Thesunglasses worn byGloria Swanson in the 1950 filmSunset Boulevard
• Scripts, drafts, notes, props, costumes, digital video and research material from the American television seriesMad Men^[25]

• Two paintings byFrida Kahlo:Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940) andStill Life (with Parrot and Fruit)
• A complete set of Pablo Picasso's 1930–1937Vollard Suite
• A she-wolf statue carved in stone and coated with gold leaf (now worn off) byEric Gill, creator ofGill Sans typeface
• Busts of various writers (on display in the lobby and reading room)
• Large holdings in art by writers and portraits of literary figures
• Facsimile of the 1908 piano suiteGaspard de la nuit composed byMaurice Ravel

• A 16th-centuryglobe designed byGerardus Mercator
• Kraus Map Collection, a 16th- and 17th-centurycartographic collection
• An official declaration byNapoleon Bonaparte
• The love letters of the Mexican EmperorMaximilian I and his wifeCarlota
• Bob Woodward andCarl Bernstein's notes, interviews, manuscripts, and other documents relating to theWatergate scandal

• Max, D. T. (June 11, 2007)."Letter from Austin: Final Destination".The New Yorker. RetrievedJune 20, 2007.
• Pearson, Rachel (March 7, 2006)."Center offers literary sort of Ransom".The Daily Texan. RetrievedMarch 17, 2006.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Pearson, Rachel (March 8, 2006)."Ransom Center criticized abroad".The Daily Texan. RetrievedMarch 17, 2006.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Page, Caroline (October 30, 2007)."HRC holds cultural gems".The Daily Texan. RetrievedOctober 30, 2007.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Page, Caroline (November 15, 2007)."Ransom Center leads in conservation".The Daily Texan. RetrievedNovember 19, 2007.^{[permanent dead link]}
• Page, Caroline (December 4, 2007)."Literary treasure hunt".The Daily Texan. RetrievedDecember 4, 2007.^{[permanent dead link]}
• "Harry Ransom Center Acquires Rare Plantin Polyglot Bible". April 29, 2008. Archived fromthe original on May 1, 2008. RetrievedMay 1, 2008.

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