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Images from the Brown University Alcohol and Addiction Studies collections
Author(s) -
White William L.,
Reis Tovah
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0965-2140
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2006.01456.x
Subject(s) - white (mutation) , citation , white paper , library science , art history , history , computer science , biology , archaeology , biochemistry , gene
Over the past decade, Dr. David Lewis of Brown University’s Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, has led an effort to assemble one the of the world’s largest collections of alcoholism and temperance literature. In this brief essay, the authors will describe the alcohol-related collections at the Brown University Library and use images from these collections to convey their topical scope. The core of the Brown University Alcohol and Addiction Studies Collections is the Chester H. Kirk Collection on Alcoholism and Alcoholics Anonymous. This collection came to the university in 1995 though a contribution by Chester H. Kirk that enabled Brown University to purchase more than 15,000 pieces of alcoholism and temperance literature. The Kirk Collection holdings were the fruits of two decades of acquisitions by Charles Bishop, an antiquarian book dealer and coauthor of a guide to the published literature on Alcoholics Anonymous. The Kirk Collection added great depth to an already significant body of alcohol and temperance literature within the Brown University Library. The Kirk Collection holdings range chronologically from a 1493 depiction of a drunken Noah in the Nuremburg Chronicle (Plate One) through the first American book on alcoholism (Anthony Benezet’s 1774 The Mighty Destroyer Displayed) (Plate Two) to late twentieth century texts, journals and pamphlets on alcoholism. Topically, the collection focuses on alcohol and alcoholism, with the bulk of the collection made up of works on temperance and prohibition and the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. However, buried within these larger topical concentrations lies a large number of nineteenth century texts on inebriety and its treatment. The majority of the materials in the Kirk Collection are from the United States, but the collection also contains materials from Canada, England, Australia, and New Zealand as well as many texts that examine alcohol use and alcohol policies around the world. The story of alcohol use, alcohol problems and efforts to prevent and treat alcohol problems is told within the Kirk Collection through a variety of media: books (Plate Three), journals (Plates Four and Five), newsletters and newspapers (Plate Six), pamphlets (Plates Seven and Eight), A.A. memorabilia (Plate Nine), sheet music (Plate