December 3, 1999

Donation fit for a king

Robert and Joan Rathe have given the Monroe Library a copy of The Birds of Great Britain, volume 1, "RaptoresBirds of Prey," by John Gould. This first edition was published in 1873 in London and includes 37 hand-colored plates. The donated copy originally belonged to King Leopold I of Belgium, who was one of the original subscribers to the series.

John Gould is known in this country as "the English Audubon," and his career published over 40 volumes containing more than 3,000 color plates.

The book will be housed in Special Collections and Archives on the third floor of the Monroe Library.