Delmarva Collection
University of Delaware alumnus donates, endows Delmarva Special Collection
11:38 a.m., March 24, 2015--The University of Delaware has announced that alumnus Ronald M. Finch, of the Class of 1956, has plans to gift his unique Delmarva Collection and a substantial endowment to the Morris Library.
This world-class Delmarva Collection consists of more than 6,000 items related to the state of Delaware, the Eastern Shore of Maryland as well as the Eastern Shore of Virginia. It includes books, manuscripts, documents, archival material, historic maps, broadsides and a significant collection of early newspapers, many of which were printed in Delaware.
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The Delmarva Collection also contains many unique items that are not held by any other research library or historical repository in the nation including the Library of Congress.
In addition to enhancing the holdings of the University of Delaware Library Special Collections Department, Finch will establish two endowment funds totaling approximately $2.5 million.
These funds will create the Elizabeth Dorothy Carlisle Finch Chair in the Department of History, to provide for a faculty position dedicated to the study of Delmarva economic, cultural, social and geographic history. The funds will also be used to create the Dr. Ronald Milton Finch Endowment for the Delmarva Special Collection, which will provide support for undergraduate and graduate students working with the collection, and to provide the means to acquire and preserve Delmarva historical materials and conduct research.
“The primary objective of these two endowments is to perpetuate the history, culture and heritage of the Delmarva Peninsula with emphasis upon the legacy and heritage of the common man,” said Finch.
This philanthropic commitment will allow the University to maintain and advance its mission of teaching Delaware history and add to its collection documenting the state’s past.
“As a leading research institution, the University places a strong emphasis and value on its special collections, which allow us to attract talented researchers, retain quality faculty and promote academic excellence,” said Provost Domenico Grasso. “We are grateful that the work we do each day — producing life-changing research and creating world-changing leaders — inspires such generosity.”
“Dr. Finch’s generous gift will greatly strengthen the library’s ability to support research and teaching in the history, culture and heritage of the Delmarva Peninsula. His collection is of national significance, and the University of Delaware Library is honored to be its future home,” said Susan Brynteson, vice provost and May Morris University Librarian.
“We are so grateful for Dr. Finch’s support of the Library and the Department of History,” said George Watson, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “As someone who has dedicated so much of his life and passion to the history of the Delmarva Peninsula, he is a benefactor not just to the University but to the entire region.”
About the collection
The Delmarva Collection, which Finch amassed with great dedication during his lifetime, contains unique holdings. Among the more notable items in the collection are a 1738 original vellum document signed by Pennsylvania colonial Gov. John Penn in which he appoints the administrator for the “Three Lower Counties on the Delaware,” the rare 1784 copy of John Filson’s The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucky and a 1797 children’s Bible printed by Peter Brynberg of Wilmington, Delaware.
Other rarities include two 1796 copies of the Address to the People of the United States by George Washington — one printed by James Wilson in Wilmington and another by Samuel and John Adams in New Castle, Delaware.
Besides containing a log of the original Wilmington whaling ship, Ceres, Finch also holds an original 1788 Act of Incorporation of the Library Company of Wilmington, which includes a list of the company’s catalogued books. Also in the collection are approximately 400 books printed in Delaware prior to 1820, and for a number of those there exist no other known copies.
Newspapers of note in the collection include a nearly complete set (63 volumes) of Niles Weekly Register (1811-49), one of the most important serial publications of the 19th century, and an entire year (1804) of the only known copy of The Mirror of the Times and General Advertiser, which was printed by James Wilson in Wilmington, and which contains contemporary political coverage of the Louisiana Purchase and the resolution of how the vice president of the United States was to be elected.
Important manuscripts include a 1678 will drawn in New Castle, personal letters of Thomas Rodney, Caesar Rodney, Thomas Sully, Admiral Samuel F. du Pont and Emily Bissell, and a diary written by Theodore Jones in 1863 when he was on active duty with the Delaware Regiment First Cavalry during the Civil War.
Also, the collection contains Paul Dunbar’s personal presentation copies of his first editions to his former English teacher, his original financial benefactor and to his mother, all of which are inscribed with his signature, his handwritten notes and poems.
In addition, there is an archival collection of documents of the Deputy Boatyard in Milford, Delaware, 1820-70, which includes numerous invoices from the abolitionist Thomas Garrett ironworks in Wilmington and a number of student letters detailing the life and conditions in the Newark Academy (formerly Academy of Newark) in the 1830s.
The collection also contains at least 4,000 Delaware lottery tickets from the 19th century, many of which were sold to build the Newark College.
Finch owns the only known copies of the 1758 and 1759 Maryland Almanack by Jonas Green. In 1977, he gave to the Maryland Hall of Records at Annapolis approximately 1,500 Caroline County court papers and early public records and 11 volumes of a blacksmith’s business records covering the years 1825-60. This latter collection is unique in that blacksmiths normally could not write and consequently did not keep accounts.
Moreover, among the public records was the only surviving County Record of Assessment in the state of Maryland (Caroline County), passed by the Maryland Assembly in 1781.
The Delmarva Collection houses numerous historic pamphlets, documents and letters from Delaware historic figures such as George Read, John Dickinson and Thomas Garrett, as well as members of prominent Delaware families such as the Rodneys, du Ponts and Bayards.
Finch said he is most proud of the fact that his collection documents and illustrates the history and lives of the common man who lived and worked in the Delmarva region from colonial period to the present.
One of his primary motivations in forming the collection is to provide the opportunity for students and scholars to conduct in-depth demographic studies to learn who settled the Delmarva Peninsula, where they came from, what they did and how they succeeded or failed in their daily lives.
His ultimate goal was ably stated many years ago by Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835 in his classic Democracy in America: “America is the only country in which it has been possible to witness the natural and tranquil growth of society, and where the influence exercised on the future conditions of states by their origin is clearly distinguishable.”
As a result of his thorough estate planning, Finch will be assured that his primary interests and objectives will be instrumental in preserving the history, culture and heritage of the Delmarva Peninsula, with a particular emphasis and focus on the legacy of the common man.
About the donor
Finch is a 1956 graduate of UD. He obtained a master’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate in administration from Columbia University, and continued in the public arena as teacher, administrator, board of education president and, subsequently, director of the state of Delaware Division of Historical and Cultural Affairs.
It is appropriate that the Dr. Ronald M. Finch Delmarva Collection come to the University of Delaware Library, a library representative said. In addition to being a loyal alumnus and a former library student assistant, Finch has been a longtime supporter of both the University and the library. He has also been a longtime member of the University of Delaware Library Associates, the “friends group,” and has served on its board of directors since 2005. He is also a member of the University’s elite donor societies including the Delaware Diamonds Society, the Carillon Circle and the Pillars Society.
Finch’s unique and creative gift, accompanied by his estate planning for the benefit of the University, exhibits his personal interests and philanthropic spirit. As a result of his generosity, the University of Delaware Library will one day hold one of the premiere collections on Delmarva history. The Dr. Ronald M. Finch Delmarva Collection, along with the endowment, will provide an outstanding contribution to the national scholarly community and to the education of future generations of researchers and UD students.
On a personal note, Finch said he would like to acknowledge and personally thank those individuals who contributed substantially to making this gift possible; namely John M. Clayton, Susan Brynteson, Tim Murray, Dana Raftas, Martha Mitchell, Jim Dalle Pazze and Paula Murphy Armstrong.