This Week in Vanderbilt History

This Week
In Vanderbilt History...

Dedication ceremonies took place May 3, 1984, when the Vanderbilt University Library was renamed the Jean and Alexander Heard Library. One of Alexander Heard's accomplishments during his 19 years as Chancellor of Vanderbilt was obtaining a $1 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to establish the Vanderbilt Library Excellence Fund. In 1974, his wife, Jean, helped establish the Friends of the Library, an organization that works to improve the resources and facilities of the library. Currently, the library houses more than 2 million volumes, 1.8 million microform items and more than 16,000 received serial titles. Other featured holdings in the system include the 1493 Nuremburg Chronicle of 1492, the last history of the world to be written without the mention of Christopher Columbus; historian Stanley Horn's collection of Andrew Jackson letters; and the works of sportswriter Grantland Rice.

Sources: Vanderbilt Register, April 20, 1984
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— Tara S. Donahue