Sidney Lapidus '59 earlier this month donated a collection of books and documents to Firestone Library. The collection, which focuses on the history of Jews in the United States, will be on display in the main lobby through Nov. 30.
"There are 35 books in the collection, so there are 35 separate significances," rare books curator Stephen Ferguson said. The group of books is more the "gathering of one collector" than a collection in itself, he added.
Because the relatively small number of books covers an immense range of topics in the 18th and 19th centuries, Ferguson has placed each of them into one of three categories: important singular works, books relating to Jewish societies and congregations in the United States and works prepared as part of the long-running dialogue between Jewish Americans and their countrymen.
Lapidus said he decided to donate the books at the request of his friend Leonard Milberg '53, whose collection on modern American Jewish writers is also on display in Firestone's main exhibition gallery.
Ferguson noted Lapidus' deep familial ties to the University. His brother and children also were undergraduates at Princeton.
The donated books - which Lapidus said are secular, not religious - were collected within the last five years and purchased mostly from buyers at auctions. These are only a small part of Lapidus' much larger collection.
"This is sort of the tip of the iceberg," he said. The rest of the collection is primarily concerned with the American revolutionary era, and Lapidus has no specific plans for what he will do with them.
Once the American Judaica exhibit comes down, the books will be added to the library's on-line catalog system - a process that will take about three weeks. The books will then go into the rare books stacks and be available for viewing and photocopying through the usual "rare-books" procedures.
"These become part of special collections," Ferguson said. "Some of them are indeed rare books."
One document in particular, a pamphlet containing the 1850 speech by Mordecai Noah - arguably the most influential Jewish American of his era - cannot be found in any other library in the United States, Ferguson said.
"These books are valuable," he said. "Some of them cost Mr. Lapidus quite a bit of money. All of them are over 100 years old. They deserve to be taken care of."
Lapidus said he hopes the books will aid students in their research. "It is my hope that these books will be used for undergraduate and graduate courses," he said.
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