Asian Library Special Collections

The Asian Library holds the papers of Professor Ch’en Shou-yi, the first professor of Asian culture at The Claremont Colleges.  The collection consists of Prof. Chen’s correspondence, photos, private library collections, work notes, manuscripts, etc. donated to The Claremont Colleges Library by his family.

The Asian Library holds over 11,200 volumes of East Asian rare books, all double folios, bound in traditional thread-stitch style, and in over 1,700 oriental cases. Among them are prints of movable types, multi-color woodblocks, fine illustrations, manuals and collections of ancient artifacts and paintings. They cover all subject matters, but are especially strong in Confucian classics, local history, the history of the Qing dynasty, early Chinese translations of western science and technology books, Bibles, and Christian education literature.

A collection of 128 titles and 808 volumes of Korean rare books and manuscripts from the 16th century to early 20th century. This valuable collection provides great contents on various aspects of early Korean society and cultural life, with extremely fine and rare samples of early Korean typography and book arts. A number of complete sets are unique holdings of The Claremont Colleges Library.

For more information, please read the illustrated descriptive catalogue compiled by the National Library of Korea, and the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation: 미국 클레어몬트 대학 도서관 소장 맥코믹 컬렉션 한국 문화재 = Frederick McCormick Collection of the Special Collections in the Claremont Colleges Library