0.6 Chapter four: the turning tide, 1960-1982  (Page 8/14)

Still, by most standards, the Society's initiatives were successful. In 1972, the Society's museum was awarded a certificate of formal accreditation by the Amer­ican Association of Museums. More important, the Society's efforts were well received by the public. For the first time ever, the Society exhibited its entire col­lection of 433 Audubon watercolors, and tens of thousands of visitors came to see the exhibition. The Society also created the Library Gallery to exhibit selected items from the library collections. The popularity of those exhibits exceeded even the Society's expectations. Because of these and other initiatives, general atten­dance at the Society increased dramatically. Between 1971 and 1973, the Soci­ety's attendance figures increased by 172 percent, from 136,324 to 351,727. As the United States prepared to celebrate its Bicentennial, the extraordinary col­lections of the Society would be much in demand.

The Society's desire to expand was not limited to its programs and services; it extended to its collections management policy as well. As previously mentioned, the Society's accessions in the late 1960s did not conform strictly to the guide­lines set forth in the 1959 acquisitions policy enacted following the Wroth report. On April 28, 1971, the board of trustees moved to formalize the broadening of that policy, approving a set of modifications to provide "a broader base" for the maintenance and strengthening of the Society's collections. The modifications significantly expanded the Society's reach. For example, the 1959 policy suggested that "no primary material relating to the California Gold Rush be acquired in the future. It is suggested that secondary material be purchased only selectively." As amended, the new policy stated that "printed primary and secondary mate­rial [on the California Gold Rush] will be purchased which relates to the col­lection we now have."

In the years following this change in official policy, the Society's officers and staff also widened the scope of its collecting chronologically. In his 1973 Report of the Library, James Gregory wrote that "as always, the majority of the books added to the library are recent ones that we believe to have lasting research value." To justify this growing emphasis on recent works, in the 1974 annual report Heslin wrote: "History could be as long ago as 1775, or it can be as recent as last week. To collect items of importance relating to both periods is our function." Greg­ory elaborated further in the same annual report: "We acquire recently published books as well as old ones. New books and current periodicals are vital to the col­lection, for some contain the findings of recent historical scholarship and others are the firsthand records of our own time and the primary sources for tomorrow's historians. ... A commonplace book today may be a rarity of the future." It is true that there is a need for libraries that will collect these materials; one wonders, however, if the policies are appropriate for an institution of limited resources with a mission and demonstrated strengths firmly planted in the history of America prior to 1900.