PHN Block lyn 1 ROU Breaking up with Sondley: The Asheville-Buncombe Library System Bids an Old Bequest Gooilbye I. Background (1931-1978) Forster A. Sondley (1857-1931)! bequeathed his personal library to the city of Asheville on his death in 1931,? The collection, variously described as containing 30,000 to 40,000 volumes, was eclectic but not entirely anfocused. Its core centered on a collection of North Caroliniana featuring 17*-century imprints, periodicals, law revisals, genealogies, and natural histories, Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands (London: 1731-43) among them, Beyond these subjects, Sondley roamed frecly in his collecting habits, acquiring books that had appealed to him as a child, along with treasures such as Hermainn Schedel’s ‘Nuremburg Chronicle (Nuremburg, 1493). In all, he was probably more of an amasser and compiler of books than a classic collector. He paid no particular attention to condition or rarity, his desideratum defined more by how much he wanted a volume than by how much others might. He distrusted celebrated bookdealers, preferring scouts such as G. E. Merritt of Lowell, “Massachusetts, who answered Forster's queries and want lists with hand-penned letters on ruled generic stationery, rather than under the formal letterhead of a more established firm. He never looked to pay any great sum for his acquisitions.* Sondley gave up his successful law practice in Asheville to devote the final thirty years of his life to his collections (which included coins, Confederate uniforms, birds’ nests and their eggs, firearms, and other weapons) and to his own historical and genealogical pursuits, for which his Caroliniana served him well.' Like many collectors, he welcomed admiring visitors to his library, provided that they shared his interest in his books" subjects above their rarity, market, value, or lovely appointments, Annie Westall (1894-1985), longtime library board member in Asheville, remembered “the austere, impressive figure of Dr. Sondley, then the ablest civil * In most personal and professional correspondence, Sondley self-identified as “F. A. Sondley.” Associates called him Foster Sondley, as did his alma mater Wotford College. His papers on deposit in the North Carolina Room of ‘Ashevvlle’s Pack Memorial Library bear the tite Forster A. Sondley Papers. See lames Daniel Le, “Sondley, Forster ‘Neexander,” from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography, edived by William S, Powell, University of North Carolina Press, 1979-199 ? Buncombe County Courthouse. Record of Will, Asheville, NC. * For an overview of the Sondley Reference Library's holdings, see Leaves from the Sondley: Sondley Reference Library. Asheville, N.C.: Friends ofthe Library/City of Asheville, 1945-1952, James Daniel Lee provides a sketch of ‘Sondley's collection habits in Forster A. Sondley and the Sondley Reference Library. Master's thesis, School of Information and Library Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil, September 1968. A collection of Sondley’ correspondence with dealers and librarians appears in Sondley Book Correspondence 1896-1907, ‘Asheville Library Board Reports, 1920-1938, MS009.002T, North Carotina Collection, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC. Sondley himself described his library as “simply the collectors instinct atts worst.” (Charlotte Observer, 4 January 1932). “Works by Sondiey include Asheville and Buncombe County (1922), History of Buncombe County, North Carolina, 2 volumes, (1930), and My Ancestry (1930).lawyer in Western North Carolina.” He accumulated books “through his own efforts and according to his own scholastic tastes.” The library at Finis Viae, his home in Haw Creek, was “visited by scholars near and far [and] coveted by colleges and universities [as] a scholat’s collection, not acquired in the spirit of exhibitionism.” As a collector, he looked to “find all available material on that subject, securing the original source material when possible.” In short, his was a library of “many unusual collections...a collection of collections.”* And like most collectors, he must have given thought in these years to his library’s next home. According to one regional magazine, a number of universities did indeed remain hopeful of Ianding Sondley’s holdings.° So it is of some intetest to speculate on why he laid his library to rest in the hands of the city of Asheville, to be administered by the city’s public library as the Sondley Reference Library, its access restricted to “well conducted white people.” Certainly, for ‘aman whose books assumed their value from their usefulness, such a donation made a certain sense. Then again, as an attorney well versed in trusts and wills, he must have understood how difficult it would be for a public municipality and its associated public library to set aside the responsibility of such a bequest—as was the case, when the time came.* “The question arose as to where to put the collection’s 45,000 bound volumes, pamphlets, and other printed materials, A committee of course formed, represented by Asheville mayor Harry Plummer, city commissioner Harry Parker, and library board chair George H. Wright. These men proposed the centralization of all North Curolina buoks ou the first Moor of Pack Memorial Library, in space at the time devoted to a check room. The remainder of Sondley’s books would bbe assigned to the building’s top floor, where Pack’s head librarian Ann Erwin believed that ample space for Sondley could be found in a library that already held 30,000 volumes. As for any initial costs in taking Sondley on, the committee estimated that $5000 would be needed to catalog, shelve, and otherwise display the new collection.” * Westall, Annie, “Library Interests.” Alumnae Bulletin of Randolph-Macon Woman's College. 38, 1 (Novernber 1944), 7. * Hickdin, J.B. “The Sondley Library,” The State (August 7, 1937), 3, 20. Buncombe County Courthouse. Record of Wills, Astieville, NC. Pack Memorial Public Library was until 1961 officially segregated, by 2 1919 indenture between the library and the city of Asheville. See “Addendum: Sondley and integration,” below. * Sondley did have some dealings with the Asheville Library Association, a precursor to the city's public library system. The Association's minutes for 21 November 1879 record that he was unanimously elected the group's first librarian. The Asheville Daily Citizen later reported that he “acted in that capacity for many months-—-making a complete catalog and establishing a system of bookkeeping.” ("The Asheville Library Association is Leaving its Rooms in the Lyceum Building,” 10 March 1894). He also may have provided some legal assistance in the Association's search for reading rooms (Minutes, 29 March 1893). ? *Sondley Books To Be Kept in Pack Library,” Asheville Citizen, 21 April 1931. A few weeks later, the library ‘estimated that catalog costs alone “will average about four cents per volume.” (Asheville Citizen, 15 May 1931}. By ‘year's end, the catalogs estimate rose to $20,000, to be carried over several years for a collection evaluated at $100,000.Because it proved impossible from the start to process the Sondley in its original Haw Creek quarters, the library board received permission from the city of Asheville to move the lot to City Hall’s seventh floor, after “stamping the flyleaves of the Sondley books to show that the books belonged to the Pack institution.” Devoting library staff to such labor-intensive duties left the board facing the need “to requisition against the unexpended portion of our budget for the salary of sufficient assistants to prepare the books for shelving and the other costs thereof.”"° Even this, small start proved difficult for a collection divided between two residential floors left “in considerable confusion, [where] bookshelves were placed too close together to give free access to books.”"" Within a month, the board solicited Philena Dickey (1878-1949), a trained professional experienced in library development, to ovetsee the work. Dickey could not arrive in Asheville until the very close of 1931, finding herself by her own description “all alone on the seventh floor of the city hall, with two empty floors between me and human contact,” What she saw was “this mass of books, practically without arrangement,” and at once expressed “sympathy for the heroines of my fairy story days who were imprisoned in a tower room full of mixed grains to be sorted before morning,” It was not until the following April 1 that Dickey, with the direct assistance of Pack librarians Margaret Seigler and Frances Auld, could begin work toward the-goal of a fully processed collection available for search in a general public card catalog. Her plan was to classify a collection that “Was not classified in any way” before beginning a catalog proper in February 1933. As cach classification entered the catalog, library staff would move those books to Pack Memorial. ‘The proposed move to Pack met catly resistance. Sondley heirs lobbied for City Hall as a finial resting place, citing space considerations that would, in accordance with the original bequest, allow the library to remain together. A.C. Reynolds, superintendent of Buncombe County Schools and president of the county’s historical society, went further: The Sondley Library was selected by Dr. Sondley according to his judgment as to what a private library ought to contain in order that he might serve his needs in scholarly pursuit, He stated to me during our intimate relationship, which continued for three years, that he desired to donate his library to those people ‘who would see that it was properly housed arid properly cared for. It will not fit in well with any public circulation library.’> *® «Board Asks for City Hall Space,” Asheville Citizen, 23 April 1931, + Most Valuable Books Locked In ity Hall Room,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 17 May 1931, The article indicated that “not to be passed up are Dr. Sonaiey's volumes which fall into the class of erotica,” specifically the Arabian Nights, Decameron, and works by Rabelais and Casanova. * philena Dickey, "Rate Literary Treasures in the Sondley Reference Library.” Dickey’s recollections ofthe library's cariy catalog appeared in the Ashevile Citizen-Times on 27 February 1938, which Included a brief biographical note on Dickey’ professional experience in New York and Washington, DC. See also coverage Inthe Ashevile Times for 1 Apri 1932, describing Dickey as “a nationally known library expert.” asheville Times, 1 Apri 1932.Municipalities aren’t natural repositories of personal collections. The Sondley Reference Library found its new home in Asheville’s City Hall, a 1920s Art Deco building designed by Douglas Ellington, Environmental controls, housing, shelving, and access were all issues from the start, along with the debilitating debt under which Asheville suffered from the 1930s onward. But it ‘wasn’t all bad, The facility consisted of a reading room, office, work room, stack rooms, and two vaults for the “dearest” possessions—a “large and airy” space full of daylight and “fresh mountain air” with views of the city and Blue Ridge beyond, a quiet, uncrowded place reflecting “the scholar’s ease.”"* Here, in spite of initial disorder, Philena Dickey set to work on making a collection ready for public access. She estimated that three catalogers could ereate bibliographic records at an annual rate of 15,000 volumes.'* And while she worked, she found the collection even then attracting early attention from important bibliographers. Charles 8. Brigham (1877-1963), director of the American Antiquarian Society, learned of the collection from “my friend Dr. Lewis Chase'S,” who had forwarded him an account of the new library’s holdings published in the Asheville Citizen. He then requested information from Dickey on newspaper issues prior to 31 December 1820 for possible entry into his bibliography of American newspapers.” As their correspondence progressed, it became clear that Dickey was fielding reference queries in the midst of cataloging the sources themselves. “We are planning to open the library to the public, although it is only about half catalogued,” she later admitted.!* “We are trying to do a thousund books « mouth with two cataloging, and onc of those is out sick.” She notes as well that Sondley “himself wrote all his letters, and kept letter-press copies. twill be a lorig time before we will be able to do this.” [i.. process the correspondence)” Another early researcher was Douglas C. MeMurtrie (1888-1944), who was referred to the. Sondley Library in 1935 while at work on “the bibliography of N.C. imprints, 1761-1800, which #4 Westal, “brary interests” 7. Westall did not consider environmental pressures as anything but virtues in describing the collection’s new home. She di, however; describe the bequest as “entirely uno“ ganized,” requiring 4 proper arrangement and catalog before it could be useful for public reference. She called Dickey “the presiding genius ofthe Soncley through its continuing years of struggle for proper recognition, even for ife itself” 5 pickey had completed a catalog of 25,000 volumes by the library's public opening in October 1935. 4 charles , Brigham to Philena Dickey, 10 Jly 1933, This letter and al other Dickey correspondence here cited ‘come from Sondley Reference Library-~Correspondence and Petty Gash Reports, Monthly and Annual Reports, MS (080 unprocessed), North Carolina Collection, ack Memorial brary, Asheville, NC. Lew Chase (1873-2987) was a professor of English at Duke University from 1928. uistory and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820 (Worcester: American Antiquarian Society, 1947) * phitena Dickey to Charles 8, Brigham, 28 June 1934 f : ® Philena Dickey to Charles S. Brigham, 32 July 1934 * philena Dickey to Charles S. Brigham, 28 June 1934, These letters, which could have provided much needed information an Sondley provenance, are problematic Except fora handful of correspondence from vendors (see above), the bulk of Sondiey’s remaining correspondence fs business-related rather than personal. it may be that Dickey at this point had nat reviewed the letters witha close reading. His hand was difficult.is now going through its final revision before publication.””! Dickey had forwarded a short-title list of eighteenth-century imprints held in the Sondley collection, for which MeMurtrie reciprocated with “a copy of the first installment of the bibliography on which I am still working... You may also care to have this in your library for general reference,” Dickey's enumerative list must have been fairly comprehensive. She describes it as containing “all the ‘North Carolina imprints of 1801 or before that we can find,” while noting that she had now catalogued all of Sondley’s books (but not his pamphlets) Dickey may have sounded a little defensive regarding her Sondley catalog when she admitted to MeMurtrie that she had “done most of my library work in public and business libraries.” Yet, there is no evidence that McMurtric himself ever visited the Sondley collection in Asheville to confirm his own work, and indeed George Washington Paschal criticized McMurtrie’s foregoing of on-site library visits during the fieldwork for his 1935 bibliography.”° Other researchers who approached Dickey in Sondley’s early years included two academics: Gertrude Gilmer of Georgia State Women’s College [now Valdosta State University] and William Patterson Cuming of Davidson College. Gilmer approached Dickey for “pertinent information” of use to her forthcoming checklist of Southern periodicals,” while Cumming corresponded with and later visited Dickey as he worked on « bibliography of North Carolina cartography.”” Dr, Chase himself attended the formal public opening of the Sondley Library on 1 October 1935, writing Dickey a few days earlier that it was “...one of the most valuable collections of its size...it has been exceptionally well cataloged...”"* University of North Carolina president Frank P. Graham delivered the official dedicatory speech in which he termed the Sondley “the beginning of a great library,” while Duke University historian William K. Boyd * Douglas C. MeMurtrie to Philena Dickey, 11 May 3935, He refers to his soon-to-be-published Elghteenth-Century ‘North Carolina Imprints, 1749-1800 (Raleigh, 1935). Earlier that year, he claimed the Sondiley held the only perfect ‘copy extant of a 1769 pamphlet printed in Wilmington (NC}, giving an account of the corwersion of Rev. John Thayer, “lately a Protestant minister at Boston.” See “Many 18” Century Pamphlets Found in Sondiey Collection,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 17 February 1935, * Philena Dickey to Douglas C. McMurtrie, 2 January 1935, and McMurtrie's response of 28 January 1935. MeMurtre's installment, The First Twelve Years of Printing in North Carolina, with a Bibliography ofthe Issues of the North Carolin Press, 1749-1760, had already appeared as an article in the North Carolina Historical Review. ® Philena Dickey to Douglas C. MeMurtrie, 22 fanuary 1935 ™ philena Dickey to Douglas C. McMurtrie, 1 February 1935 pascal, A History of Printing In North Carolin: a Detaled Account ofthe Pioneer Printers, 1749-1800 and ofthe Edwards & Broughton Company, 1871-1946, including a Brief Account ofthe Connecting Period (Raleigh, 1946) * Gertrude Gilmer, to Philena Dickey, 8 November 1933. She soon published her Checkilst of Southern Periodicals (Boston, 1934), * william Patterson Cumming to Philena Dickey, 6 November 1935. Cummings visited the Sondiey Library in 1936 and went on to write extensively on the colonial cartography of North Carolina and the American Southeast. He ‘donated his Geographical Misconceptions of the Southeast in the Cartography of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries tothe library in 1938, ® Lewis Chase to Philena Dickey, 29 September 1935, Former Director of Ashevile-Buncombe Libraries Edward Sheary (1990-2014) expressed doubt that such a catalog was ever finished, Author's intervew with Edward Sheary, 4 May, 2018saw Asheville on the brink of joining ranks with “the other book centers of the Southeast.” D. Fiiden Ramsey, general manager of Asheville’s Citizen and Times, dectared that “it is difficult to imagine just what this library meant to Foster Sondley."**Also attending, by invitation of Annic Westall, were members of the Wester North Carolina branch of the American Association of University: Women, who would soon take an active role in support of the collection. By 1938, descriptive information for researchers interested in the Sondley appeared in Robert B. Downs’ Resources of Southern Libraries: a Survey of Facilities for Research (Chicago: ALA, 1938), to which Pack library staff continued to refer those with queries as late as the mid- 1960s.” Downs devoted fifteen pages to the collection and praised it for “the most complete section on the American Indian in North Caroline.” Its publication may do much to explain the “airborne communication” beiween researchers that attracted them to’ Asheville.” Two years later, Dickey mailed the Sondiey Reference Library: A Survey of Research Material to 658 departments of colleges and museums “describing the research possibilities of the Sondley Library.” The 30-page survey, prepared for interested researchers under the direction of the “Library Committee of the North Carolina Branch of the American Association of University Women,” drew acknowledgment from Charles Brigham,” still at work on American Newspapers. Caroliniana collector and bibliophile Bruce Cotten may have received a copy as well, He at the least felt it necessary to write Dickey, early in 1941, regarding his comparatively small collection of 1839 cataloged items, which he took pains to describe as “purely North Caroliniana: “...but | fancy myself more exclusive than you are or rather than Ds. Sondley was if you will pardon my vanity.” He went on to make clear that he expected “to get out a little book on this collection."*° “The first years of the Sondley had been on the whole promising, Under Dickey the library produced a professional catalog and a printed survey with fairly wide distribution, attracting professional bibliographers, researchers, and interested visitors.”* The space at City Hall, if not % westal, “Library Interests” & 2 nGraham Talks 2s Sondley Library Opens,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 2 October 1935. 24 miss Westall invited club members to attend the public opening ofthe Sondiey Library.” AAUW WNC minutes, 25 September 1935, MS77.9.3.4, UNC Asheville Special Collections, Ramsey Library. 32 Margaret Ligon to william Chalt, 9 October 1964. Ligon was at the time head librarian at Asheville's Pack Memorial Public Ulbrary. 2% Westal, “Library interests” 42 Charles. Brigham to Philena Dickey, 3 June 1940. The Ubrary Committee reported that “eight specialists have been assembling and evaluating the material inthis remarkable collection of books, a recent donation to the city.” brary Committee Report, 1939-1940, AAUW Asheville, M77.9.1.6, UNC Asheville Special Collections, Ramsey Library. » gruce Cotten to Philena Dickey, 1 February 1941, See Cotten, Housed on the Third Floor: Being a Collection of, [North Carolintana formed by Bruce Cotten, with Some Facsimile Impressions of Titles (Baltimore, 1943). Pack Library's copy bears Cotton’s warm 1941 inscription to Dickey. he library’s register for 20 August 1936 reads: °F. Scot Fitzgerald, Baltimore—a fine brary anda staff that makes one grateful.” Register forthe Sondley Reference Library, 1936-1942. MSOBO.006A, North Carolina Roomdesigned as a library, provided room for staff and scholars, with mountain views for visitors. ‘The Sondley proved a useful research asset for local, natural, and family history readers, as well as for general users and patrons, in and around Asheville, and beyond. The collection became a souree of civic pride and brought to Ashoville some distinction in the realm of public libraries. ‘The greatest challenges, not surprisingly, proved to be financial. By 1939, city budget cuts and, according to Westall, “a lack of appreciation [and] indifference” reduced the reference staff to a single librarian and two pages. At the same time, Sondley’s original monetary bequest for collection development had run dry, mainly due to depressed property values. The city, obligated only to maintain, and not develop, the collection’s holdings could begin to look on it all as “too much of a luxury.”°7 The city responded to these developments by holding an emergency conference with the library's board, from which city manager P. M. Burdette emerged to announce that Sondley would have to leave City Hall, within a week, for what appéared to be its only viable home: Pack Memorial Library, where it would occupy portions of the second and third floors. Burdette indicated that the Sondley cost Asheville on average $6000 per year to maintain at city hall, amounting to about $1 per annual visitor. The move and “merger” of the libraries would be made “in the interest of economy,” with no expectation that the ew arrangements would affect staffing or the “effectiveness of service.”** Citizens unconvinced of the plan’s ultimate wisdom rejected Pack as a suitable home for the collection. One writer to the Citizen-Times saw “value to residents and visitors alike (on whom Asheville relies)” for the Sondley’s remaining in City Hall, while seeing no “benefit to merge and to bury it in the basement.” Presbyterian minister R. F. Campbell, who delivered the invocation at the Sondicy’s public opening, urged the city to “retain the valuable services of Miss Dickey and keep the Sondley library in the present convenient and commodious ‘quarters... Will not the practical value of the Sondley library be greatly reduced by the proposed change?” In his regular newspaper column, John H. Caine judged the proposal “nothing short, of'a public calamity,” which represented “the practical burial of the Sondley Library in quarters that cannot accommodate it one floor,” and which would mark “the pending disintegration of one of the most valuable literary collections in the entire country (and] the destruction of an institution’s identity.” Languishing in Pack, the library would become inaccessible to “the old, the fat, infirm, and lame"? Bleanor Waddell Stephens suggested, somewhat less floridly,” that, Sondley simply close temporarily “until funds could be secured” rather than “crowding the library into the Pack building, breaking it up, and destroying its value as a real reference library.” Special Collections, Pack Memorial Library. Fitzgerald stayed in Ashevile’s Grove Park nn the summer after his wife Zelda's admittance to Highland Hospital Complete or not, Dickey’sSondley catalog is no longer extant. * Westal, “Library interests” 9. The Asheville Times earlier reported on this part of the bequest in “Soncley's Will Leaves $65,000 for New Books,” 15 May 1931, % «Sondley Library to be Moved to Pack on August 1." Asheville Times, 22 July 1939, * “Letters to the Editor,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 29 July 1939, "Against Library Merger,” by F. W. Thomas, ‘Ashevile; “Regarding Proposed Library Merger.” by R.. Campbell, Asheville, “© “Today and Yesterday,” by John H, Caine. Ashevile Citizen-Times, 30 July 1939Stephens feared that the collection would not prove as accessible or as comfortable to researchers on “noisy Pack Square." Dickey for her part expressed her views by resigning, as the Citizen- Times reported in an obituary-styled article that highlighted the accomplishments of her 30-year career in libraries. Given such reactions, the city relented, and Sondley advocates began looking about for viable means of support for the collection. In the same year, not coincidentally, Frances Auld at ‘Asheville’s Pack Memorial Public Library forged an association with the local branch of the ‘American Association of University Women (AAUW), forming a library commitiee book drive to collect thousands of books and magazines in support of the library’s bookmobile. The partnership developed its own Library Aid Committee by 1942, with Westall as its president, charged with forming a Friends of the Library group that would support both the needs of the public library and the financial support of the Sondley collection’s book fund, The group planned to install a Foreign Literature Reading Room in Sondley “for the use of refugees, foreign bom, ‘and students,” as well as initiate a seties of exhibitionis devoted to the collection, in order to acquaint people with library holdings and to raise book fund money for the SRL. The first (and last) exhibition, on view 31 March through 3 April 1943, featured a “cross section of the material in the Sondiey collection.” “The sun’s rays,” Westall remembered without any preservationist irony, “seemed to seck out the very cases that held the oldest of the Sondley treasures." ‘Comcident with the library's outreach and fundraising activities, public support for and interest inthe collection made its way into Asheville’s daily press. Edwin Bjorkman, state director for the Federal Writers’ Project, revealed that the Sondley library was one major reason that the North Carolina State Guide established its editorial offices in Asheville rather than Raleigh, crediting Dickey’s experience with the collection. “Nor can the cultural value of the library be gauged by the number of visitors, as it is designed for serious study, and not for entertainment.”"* Asheville’s Sand Hill Schoo! librarian praised the library's “large reading room that extends across the front of the building. ..equipped with tables, chairs, and special lights.” She noted that “Miss Dickey is especially eager to have young people come to the library and extends an invitation to the teachers to bring classes to visit.”*° One editorial announces support for a “movement” to display and exploit Sondley’s yet-to-be-displayed collection of bird eggs as “a usable Sondley Library asset by popular subscription.” The library's noteworthy new arrivals and original curiosities alike received some coverage, as did a two-year program of preservation «people's Forum, Asheville Citizen, 2 August 1939, “The Sondley Library,” by Eleanor Waddell Stephens. ‘ «philena A, Dickey Quits Post with Sondley Library,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 30 July 1939, ‘© «t1urrah for Ashevillel We are Going to Retain Sondley Library and Miss Dickeyt” Asheville Citizen, 4 August 1939, * Westall, “Library interests,” 11. “© «Grateful to Sondley Library and Miss Dickey,” by Edwin Bjorkman, Asheville Citizen, September 1939. 4g Treasure House: Sondley Library Captures Imagination of Students with its Books, Guns Gems, and Indian Antiquities,” by Mrs. Junius Alison, Ashevile Citizen-Times, 11 February 1940 *” «Movement Started to Display Sondley Bird Egg Group” and “The Cairns Bird-Egg Collection” [editorial Asheville Citizen-Times, 4 August 1940.treatment provided by library staff."* Beyond press coverage, the collection continued to attract some academic attention as well. Velma Goode, student at Nashville’s Peabody College, concluded, without apparent irony, that “from Wheatley to Chesnutt there is a good working collection of negro authors,” and that “Sondley was interested in the negroes and Indians as is evidenced by the source material he collected about them.””? As Annie Westall asked herself: “And now do we come to “And they lived happily ever after"? No, we do not.”*" Talk of moving Sondley out of City Hall continued after American entry into ‘World War If, this time as rumors that the Army might requisition space in Asheville’s municipal buildings. One letter to the editor reacted to “talk of consigning us to vaults and dark cellars” and hoped that “if the Government takes over our present home, we are hoping that our friends will provide even a better place for us.” Another asserted that “there are more ways than one to destroy a library; one of the most successful is to neglect it.” The library's annual report for 1941-1942, as published in the Citizen-Times, indicated that “rumors of the Sondley Reference Library’s possible move from City Hall are a deterrent to its use by researchers, as people think the change is a fait accompli.” In fact, the United States Air Corps did evict the library when City Hall met repurpose as a Flight Command facility in April 1943. The Citizen Times welcomed the Air Corps as an economic boon and expected the library to move to a local elementary school so as not to be “swallowed up or buried in quarters that would hardly accommodate it.” The library board, however, recommended that Pack receive the collection, as it did on April 20. Pack’s head librarian, Evelyn Parks, noted that her library met the four criteria of fire resistance, environmental control, accessibility, and capacity that made it the appropriate home for the Sondley collection.‘ Moving a large collection under severe budgetary restrictions during wartime to Asheville’s public library (then serving a population of just over 50,000) was not an ideal scenario. At the least, a special collection requiring special care and staffing set apart from the services of the “Sondley Library Gets New Books,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 3 October 1940. The accession included Thomas Wolfe's posthumous novel You Can’t Go Home Again “Bible Collection Revives Interest in Strange Editions,” Asheville Times, 7 January 1941. “Special Treatment is Given Leather-Bound Volumes in Sondley,” Asheville Citizen- Times, 12 July 1942. Eight thousand volumes received a rubbing with a mixture of petroleum jelly, neatsfoot oil, and lanolin, Vellum bindings were next and would require “a different treatment.” ‘Velma Goode, “The Sondley Reference Library,” Education 500, Dr. Crabb, [Peabody College of Education, Nashville TN], 8 August 1941. 11-page typescript (photocopy), North Carolina Room, Pack Memorial Library. * HeardTell: The North Carolina Room, Pack Memorial Library httos: ncroom,wor 2 “wanted: A Home—The Book Children of Sondley, 7” Floor of City Hall,” by A.R. Bullock, Asheville Times, 14 February 1942. “People’s Forum: The Sondley Library Needs Support,” by Annie Westall. Asheville Citizen-Times, 21 March 1943, Westall foresaw the library's demise by neglect ifit were to move from City Hall. “Sondley Library Here is Visited by 5000 in Year.” © "Today and Yesterday” and “Placing of Sondley Books in Pack Unit for Duration Asked,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 13 April 1943. © “approval of Housing Sondley Library in Pack Building is Seen,” Asheville Times, 14 April 1943. * 1940 United States Census10 general collection made for an uneasy sharing of assets for a public library with a mission to serve a local patron base. As it was, the Asheville Public Library in 1943 found itself the repository for a collection of over 30,000 books that by the terms of Sondley’s will required housing, care, and staffing separate from the rest of the library’s holdings. Philena Dickey accepted the situation with somewhat less optimism than did Pack’s librarian and board. “The Sondley Library cannot now be considered a show place but only a work room,” she mourned, as she and her two assistants set out to determine, by use, which Sondley books they were to shelve on the second floor, “where the desk.is,” and which “collectors” items [were to be] placed ina Jocked room” in the basement. She noted that “they will be slower in getting the reference material because of the position of the books ranging from the basement to the third floor.” Crowding looked to be an immediate issue as well, since Pack offered only a fourth of the space City Hall had provided. Basement repairs were unavoidable “so that dampness will not damage the books and bindings.” Even so, up to a third of the collection, presumably its rarest items, ‘would be housed there along with the oggs, relies, coins, gems, display cases and tables. The Foreign Reading Room would disband, its volumes given away to “where they could do the most good.” Dickey concluded that “out of the present chaos is expected to come an orderly, usable reference library.”®> Public criticism of the move, as in 1939, dwelt on Pack’s noted inadequacies as a repository for special collections. Mrs, Gibson Packer, secretary of UUAW-Asheville’s Library Aid Committee, deplored the choice as a necessury expedient while “all those interested look for a Detter solution after the war.” She foresaw damage to both Pack and Sondley due to the building’s environmental shortcomings. Crosby Adams of nearby Montreat cast his support behind the construction of a new building of its own for the Sondley. Mrs. Loveland Munson wrote that “the library, as I knew it, is no longer in existence...One can only hope some day that it may be restored to its former beauty...on the top floor of the beautiful city hall in spacious, vwell lighted rooms with an outlook toward the encireling mountains.” Even four years later, Elbert H. Ownby regretled the Sondley’s “present inadequate and obscure quarters...Most of the collection is still in storage and not readily accessible to the public...It is hoped that someone will give it a permanent home of its own.”°° Dickey reported that library staff spent three months moving 31,500 volumes into “circumscribed quarters,” with the assistance of the Asheville Fire Department. The move followed the formal depletion of the Sondley book fund carried over from the original bequest. The news grew worse, “The Sondiey Reference Library is rapidly become a war casualty,” 3” 5 »sondley Books Housed Now In Pack Ubrary,” Asheville Citizen, 30 April 1943, % nars, Gibson Packer, “Re: The Sondley Library,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 30 May 1943; Crosby Adams, “People’s Forum: A Precious Possession," Asheville Citizen-Times, 26 September 1943; Mrs. Loveland Munson, “Winter Browsings,” Vermont Botanical Society, 1945; Elbert H. Ownby, “The Sondley Library,” Bluets, Spring 1947, p 23-24 > annual report for year ending 30 June 1943, Sondley Reference Library, Asheville NC. This and other cited fistal- ‘year reports are filed as unprocessed documents under MS 080, "Sondley Reference Reports 1943-1953,”n Dickey reported the following year, with “32,000 volumes scattered over three floors of Pack Memorial Library.” No inventory was possible, under such conditions, to trace volumes missing or misplaced during transfer. About half of the collection appeared on open shelves, with the remainder left in the cellar.** Even so, the library reported additions to the Sondicy in particular and special collections generally through the end of the war. A four-page typescript report reflected Dickey’s outright frustration with Sondley’s second home. No two or three people, she reported, could adequately care for a library of 32,500 volumes. Soot from the nearby Langren Hotel was damaging her books. She attributed losses of inventory both to open shelving and to the library reading room’s lax security. Her staff worked ‘on one 1933 typewriter while maintaining two reference rooms, leading to turnover as a chronic issue, She counted the library’s future as uncertain. “Damage sustained in the move from City Hall was great and has not in any way been repaired so any future move should be to permanent resting place...If we could only have a building, large enough and well planned for the work, with sufficient storage and work rooms.” She immediately qualified such a wish with the caveat that “to put all the money into the building, is to my way of thinking, wicked, wasteful, and unnecessaty, so [long as] it is fireproof, and] in good taste for the use and place in which itis located.” Elsewhere, in a draft to an undated report®', Dickey bemoaned the library’s overcrowding and understaffing, lack of work space, and double shelving, all of which making inventory impossible, leading her to wonder “how many volumes were lost in the transfer from City Hall to the Pack Memorial building... I have never been able to find some valuable books that I know I had.” She notes as well that Sondley had not been “particularly careful as to the condition of the books he aequired and much repair work was done when we had quarters which permitted the move did not add to the care and preservation of these books.” Meanwhile, though the current affairs at Pack Memorial made collection development difficult, new accessions still made their way into the collection, including “a large box of North Carolina books and pamphlets” received from the Davidson College library, as well as memorial volumes and other purchases funded through the newly formed Friends of the Library. Perhaps the only good news in these times was the October 1945 announcement of Leaves from the Sondley—“a descriptive list of books from the Sondley Library,” to be issued periodically in 5 Annual report for year ending 30 June 1944, Sondley Reference Library, Asheville NC * annual report for year ending 30 4une 1945, Sondley Reference Library, Asheville NC © Annual report for year ending 30 June 1946, Sondley Reference Library, Asheville NC By content, this draft appears to be associated with the 1945-1946 report directly above © annual report for year ending 30 June 1947, Sondley Reference Library, Asheville NC ® Memorial Volumes since uly 1945" [3-p typescript] and “Friends Purchases for Sondlay Reference Library, 1947-1949" [2-p typescript]. Unprocessed documents, “Sondley Reference Library—Correspondence and Petty ‘Cash—Monthly and Annual Reports”, MS.080.2 parts by subject classification. The publication, issued in connection with the library's tenth anniversary, would contain “a cross section of the best of the Sondley material,” to be distributed ibrary associations, accredited library schools, universities, colleges, and public libraries in the District of Columbia and the thirteen states of the Southeast. Its premier issue, devoted to Sondley’s incunabula, Elzeviers, and other books from the West’s early modem period, would go out with a lotter of introduction and a postcard to be returned “if the lists are desired.” Leaves attracted the support of Asheville’s Chamber of Commerce and the encomia of several university libraries and library schools. Although selective, it remains, in the absence of a defivitive catalog, the collection’s only surviving bibliographic legacy. For its part Westall’s Friends group did their best to support a collection crowded into “a basement that was not constructed for the housing of books” and parts of two upper floors, with ‘no work room, no exhibition space, no glass eases, and no Foreign Literature Reading Room. In April 1944, the group enticed Mary Lambert Becker, staff writer for the New York Herald ‘Tribune and mother of book designer and publisher Beatrice Warde, to speak at the Friends’ first annual meeting. Her Asheville visit apparently impressed her enough to support the Sondley Reference Library in her Herald Tribune Books column. Westall’s ultimate goal—never in any way realized—was for the establishment of a “large building in the heart of the town [with] a museum and a wing for the Sondley Reference Library.” For this to come about, “the Sondley needs a friend of substance.” But no such friend came forward.“ Such was the state of affairs for Sondley when Philena Dickey died on 13 June 1949. Library Director Margaret Ligon, recognizing the need for action, soon recommended that a specialist in public reference work be asked to survey “the present reference situation” in the Pack Memorial and Sondley libraries. The board authorized $350 for Lucile Kelling of the University of North Carolina’s School of Library Science to survey the reference facilities of both libraries, while asking Ligon to consult with Kelling on “broadening the regional scope of our library service.” Kelling’s report was clear: a modem public library’s basic function was for the use and not the preservation of literature. Pack staff had placed a disproportionate emphasis on the Sondley Library, much of which did not directly concern the “rank and file” of Asheville. Much of the collection held small value for most patrons. She questioned the need to “preserve the identity” of the bequest through separate shelving and recommended one true reference department, with one lead librarian and unified shelving. The collection needed weeding. Duplication was ‘wasteful of space and money. The library’s regional material was a primary asset deserving of ‘maintenance and development, but not at the expense of general collections. Rare materials & «teaves from the Sondley Gives Information on Rare, Valuable Books,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 14 October 1945, See also “Sondley “Leaves” Prove [si] Big Ald to Booklovers: Pamphlet Helps City To Share Collection With Other Libraries,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 4 May 1947. For a slightly premature announcement of the serles, see Southern Packet, July 1945. © Westal, “Library Interests,” 12-14 Minutes of the Board of Trustees, June 14, 1951,2B unrelated to local and regional concerns belonged “in accessible storage under special conditions that experts advise for their best preservation,” while relegating books of doubtful value— encyclopedias, author sets, back files in duplicate of city directories, world almanacs, dictionaries—to storage “without regard for accessibility,” in closed areas of the building, so that Pack’s service area could be “thrown open” to the development of other library activities, youth services among them. Sondley books, those added to the collection as well as original volumes, that rated general circulation should receive such designation. These changes would result in uncrowded shelving and increased space for both patron reading and staff work. Implementation ‘would require the hiring of temporary assistants at first and permanent professional staff after that.” The library board expressed dismay over the Kelling report, maintaining that it failed to understand the nature of public support for the Sondley Reference Library. At the same time, it did not expressly reject any of its findings. Rather, it began entertaining ideas on how to increase library-service space and merge reference shelving.” Board president and Asheville architect Anthony Lord’s support for increased library space actually pre-dated the Kelling Report, which could only have reinforced his conviction on the matter.” Lord identified “the urgent need of a much larger building to house the City libraries” on a larger “list of community needs” addressed to the Asheville Citizen-Times.”' Board action, however, was effectively limited to the 1953 merger of the Sondley collection with Pack’s general reference to become the Sondley Reference Library of Asheville’s Pack Memorial Library.” The change was cosmetic, as the two collections remained separate in their physical locations, metrics, accounting, and staffing. Still, the action, if nothing else, represented the first setting aside of any stipulation in Sondley’s will.” In March 1956 H.M. Lydenberg, former director of the New York Public Library, and John Cook Wyllié, associate librarian of the University of Virginia's Alderman Library, filed a report © Lucile Kelling, The Pack Memorial ond the Sondley Reference Departments: a Report and Recommendations to the Board of Trustees of the City of Asheville, 13 September 1951. * Minutes of the Board of Trustees, 4 October 1951. Minutes of the Board of Trustees, 13 December 1951. One suggestion, never pursued, involved transferring Pack’s reference collection to the Sondley as a loan not subject to Sondley restrictions, and so allowing the material to be shelved together. ” See his 6-page typescript document headed “Alteration of Premises Occupied by B.F. Goodrich Company to provide extra space for Pack Memorial Library and Sondley Reference Library,” from unprocessed documents, “Correspondence, Memos, Pack Memorial Library, 1950-1969,” MS 080. * anthony Lord to Robert Campbell, the Asheville Citizen-Times, 11 April 1952 ” Lee, Forster A. Sondley and the Sondley Reference Library. Also see “Library Time Line,” compiled by Zoe Rhine, nttps:/ncroom.buncombecounty.ora/Presto/homé laspx?ssid=Librory Time Line Later to be set aside, in 1961, was Sondley’s restriction of his collection’s use to “well conducted white people”, Irene Hendricks, librarian of Asheuille’s African American Market-Eagle branch, announced that “the City of Asheville Libraries including all departments and branches shall be opened to all peaple on or before November 1, 1961.” See “Addendum: Sondley and Integration,” below.14 with entirely different findings.”* Lydenberg and Wyllie described as “sound policy” the idea. that the Sondley Library could be considered a “nucleus” around which to build a greater collection in fields determined by the demands maile on reference by academic institutions industry, and tourism. Pack Memorial would evolve to serve the needs of “the impending state college in Asheville,”” resulting in the skeletonization of its circulation and the reliance on branch facilities for traditional patron services. Such an outcome, Lydenberg and Wyllie foresavi; would requite“a high order of diplomacy, enthusiasm, persistence, and courage.” ‘The report found some favor. Susan Grey Akers, former dean of the University of North Carolina Library School, opened a correspondence with library director Ligon regarding the “reorganization and development of the Sondley Reference Library for use as a college library." Ligon charged Akers with the implementation and supervision of this project, which, involved the reshelving and recataloging of existing Sondley volumes as well. as recommendations for future Sondiey accessions, The work coincided to some degree with the establishment of the Robert L.. Wilson Library Inteslibrary Loan Center at UNC, to which catalog, cards for all nonfiction in Pack were sent (o be entered in the Wilson Library's North Carolina Union Catalog, along with microfilmed author cards for entries in the Sondley Library. “In.an, effort to bring the Sondley Reference Collection to a college level, all cards of nonfiction prepared for the Union Catalog were checked [against] the Bibliography of the Lamont College of Harvard University.” During this time, Mr: O. V. Cook, associate librarian of the Wilson, Library, evaluated the rare books in Suudley aad described the natural history collection as “onc of the finest he had ever seen.””” In light of these developments, Asheville’s library board chose to include the Lydenberg and Wyllie report, as well as the Akers initiatives, ina list of its achievements for 1951-1957, while identifying their continuation as priorities for the library’s next five-year plan, just above “Study use of Library for all races.””* Although the branch library system grew in the decade following Lydenberg-Wyllie, Pack Memorial itself never developed into the central reference library the report envisioned, Instead, ‘Asheville moved in 1965 toward the adoption of a city-county system of library branches under a Director of Libraries who was not, as it tured out, Margaret Ligon but Kenneth Brown. Ligon » Final Draft of @ Report of fa] Survey ofthe Ashevile Reference and Circulation Library Systems. Wyfte, ina letter to Asheville's Chamber of Commerce and to library director Margaret Ligon, again recommendled the reconfiguration of Pack Memorial and Sondley for “anew state college in Asheville." (Wyllie to. Frank Coxe, Secretary ofthe Asheville Chamber of Commerce, cc Margaret Ligon, 13 August 1956), Asheeille- Buncombe College, originally chartered in 1936, did join the University of North Carolina system as UNC Asheville 19969, 7 susan Grey Akers to Margaret Ligon, 19 July 2956, and Ligon’s reply 6 August 1956. This was not a new idea, As carly as 1938, an Asheville Times editorlal asserted that the city's dream of a college af arts and sclencas might lla with the Sondley Reference Library. "Some day it might become a cornerstone of a great college or university.” See “The Sondley Reference Library,” Asheville Times, 4 March 1938. "” tibrarian’s Report for YE 30 June 1958, 10-page typescript, filed by Mergaret Ligon 20 August 1958 ™ Five-Year Plan, 1957-1961, from unprocessed folder “Ubrary Board, Pack Memorial, MS 080 circa 1964-1977, Corrected Board Meetings etc. NOT ARCHIVED”15 stayed on as Pack Memorial’s director for one month, before resigning, In that same year, the UNC branch at Asheville dedicated a library of its own, the D. Hiden Ramsey.” Kenneth Brown came on just as William Chait and Ruth Warnoke issued yet another report—A Survey of the Public Libraries of Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina (Chicago: American Library Association, 1965).*° The 91-page document, referring to both Kelling (1951) and Lydenberg-Wyllie’s assessment of Sondley (1956), asserted that “grave questions have been raised conceming its value to the residents of Buncombe County.” The authors recommended that the newly forming Asheville-Buncombe Library System (A-BLS) decide which reference subjects to develop and which to leave static, while urging that priority fall on regional material. In any case, special collections were not to take precedence at the expense of general circulation, nor should Pack Memorial become a central reference branch, in view of the report’s determination that 90% of the Sondley’s holdings were worthless to the people of Buncombe County. Rare books had been “stamped, marked, embossed and otherwise mistreated. Even in a university library, most of these volumes would be “disregarded as lacking in scholarly value,” and whose utility would prove far less than the cost of their care. The Sondley had “used up resources of staff time, money, and space” that could have been otherwise allocated. It was time for A-BLS to embrace the policy that “the systematic removal from collections of materials no Jonger useful is essential to maintaining the purposes and quality of resources.”*" Chait and ‘Warncke, in presenting their findings to the board, asked trustees to consider Sondley not in terms of optimal use but in terms of its continued existence.” Was the Sondley collection worth maintaining, or should disposal in part, by sale or donation, receive some consideration? The consensus of the board was that “our first obligation is to the people of the community,” and not by implication, the preservation of the Sondley bequest. When Kenneth Brown arrived in the fall of 1965, trustees placed the Sondley issue at the top of items for discussion regarding “matters of policy on which the Board wishes to instruet Mr. Brown,” while citing “D. Hiden Ramsey’s remarks about the [Sondley Reference] Library,” which Annie Westall said “should be available” to the newly named Director of Libraries.” The library’s 1966-1967 report notes that “retaining obsolete books does actual harm to a library.” ‘The 1969 brochure Js Pack Library Really Obsolete? issued by the League of Women Voter's Asheville Branch (LWV Asheville) included as number seven in its ist of inadequacies ” The library's namesake, Darley Hiden Ramsey (1891-1966), was a long-time managing editor of the Asheville Gitizen-Times. ® Edward Sheary asserts that Brown was hired to implement the Chait and Warncke report—author’s interview, ® Chait and Warncke, A Survey of the Public Libraries of Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina (Chicago: ‘American Ubrary Association, 1965), 27-31, The authors relied on the ALA’s 1956 guide, Public Library Service: A Guide to Evaluation with Minimum Standards, for much of their evaluation of Sondiey.. ® Minutes of the Board of Trustees, 13 Novernber 1964 © Minutes of the Board of Trustees, 11 November 1965 “* Librarian’s Report for YE 30 June 1967, S-page typescript draft, unsigned16 Sondley’s “dungeon storage—over 20,000 volumes not accessible to the public.”** A 1970 City- County Library Study, chaired by members of LWV Asheville, recommended that the collection a3.a whole should be re-evaluated and sold or given away in part if legally possible.* The A- BLS campaign for Pack Memorial Library’s tong-wished-for new building also. did much to focus attention on the collection. Anthony Lord, in a 1976 letter to the board, proposed a new ‘committee structure that included a task forces dedicated to Long ‘Term Objectives, a “one-job committee” tasked with preparing a report for general board acceptance. He asked: What does ownership of the Sondley collection do for us at the present time? ‘What is the value as library holdings (not intrinsic) of the rare items? Do we want to secure additional material in Asheville or in Western North Carolina private libraries? Lord went on to suggest that “as much of this work should be done independently of the Library Director as possible,” in order to respect Brown’s busy schedule and “to avoid board findings being influenced by professional views before members have thought them out."*7 Brown soon took time out from his busy schedule to report to the board that Sondley material ‘would consume 25% of the new building’s vault, and 50% of its reference capacity, “and that much of that was of dubious value.”** Dubious or not, the insurance value of the Main Library’s reference collection of 48,000 volumes did exceed $260,000." These huldings.were pointedly excluded from the library’s newly written statement of surplus book policies and procedures,°° Such uncomfortable cohabitation might have survived indefinitely but for a shift, late in the 1970s, in the status quo. Buncombe County was about to collate the separate library districts in its jurisdiction under the mantle of the Ashville-Buncombe Library System. Asheville’s Pack Memorial Library, in the meantime, long in need of additional space offering enhanced multi-use and collection capacity, was looking to move into a new-construction building. Perhaps most importantly, the city’s Director of Libraries appeared less than fully supportive of funds *5 LWV Asheville Is Pack Library Really Obsolete? [1969]. Papers, League of Women Voters Asheville, MM77.11.4.7 {PM New Location 1967-1974). UNCA Special Collections, Ramsey Library. “irs, James Friedrich, chair of City-County Library Study, 2 March 2970, &-page typescript * anthony Board to Board of Trustees, 12 July 1976, 2-page typescript with 8-page attachment. * Minutes of the Board of Trustees, 19 August 1976 * Collections Valuation for Insurance Coverage, Main Library, Reference, August 1972, based on holdings as of 30 June 1977. The document determines valuation by a formula of $5.50 per volume and $6 per microfilm reel. A handful of Sondley rarities and Thomas Wolfe letters were assigned individual values, none exceeding $3500. * proposed Surplus Book Disposal Policy, 3-page typescript, filed by Kenineth Brown, 21 July 1977. The document excluded “special items of intrinsic worth and historical or archival value, induding items in the vault, Thomas ‘Wolfe, Sondley Reference Library, North Carolina Room, General Reference, etc.” These materials were subject to ‘the review of the brary board on an individual basis.v dedicated to special collections. These parallel developments worked to draw the attention of the Asheville’s library board to the Sondley’s future. IL. Three Moves Equal a Sale When Pack Memorial Library dedicated its new building on November 18, 1979, Asheville’s daily morning newspaper the Citizen (now the Citizen-Times) noted that library staff and volunteers had labored with “unlibrary-like speed” to move over 170,000 volumes.”’ The Sondley Reference Library moved along with them. Sondley’s relationship with the library’s reference and special collections, uneasy from the start, was about to become even more so. Within a year, the library board’s newly formed Sondley Committee recognized that the concept of a reference-library-within-a-reference-library required a close look. The committee’s chair, antiquarian bookdealer Chandler Gordon.” quickly reported on the choice before the board: sell Sondley (in parts, to maximize the proceeds) or keep it all (and so accept responsibility for collection-wide preservation and item-by-item conservation). The choice laid bare all sorts of unexamined perils. As Sondley conveyed his collection to the city of Asheville in order that it be maintained as a separate collection, did any further failure to accede to his stipulations invalidate the bequest? Even so, given City ownership of the collection, would any sale’s proceeds necessarily be available for library use? And seeing that Buncombe County's Board of ‘Commissioners had (as of January 1, 1980) just assumed formal operations oversight of all library system branches, include Pack Memorial Library, who exactly owned the Sondley?”° Anthony Lord took up the matter in a 20 March 1980 letter to Asheville City Attomey William Moore, to which a complete copy of Sondley’s will was attached. After noting that Pack ‘Memorial had served as the collection’s custodian since World War II and that the collection had been fully cataloged by library staff, he acknowledged that “there have been periodic discussions as to what ought to be done with the Sondley Collection” as well as “widely different views” and “emotional factors” apart from the everyday factors of library funding, staffing, and storage. “There seems to be no question,” he continued with perhaps some wishful thinking, “that the city of Asheville owns the Collection.” Then he posed six questions: 1) Can the City sell the collection, in part or in total? 2) Who gets the proceeds? 3) Can the City transfer proceeds of a sale to the Asheville-Buncombe Library System (A-BLS) for library use? *" “Today in Asheville History: New Pack Library Dedicated.” The Asheville Citizen-Times, November 18, 1965, accessed 28 November 2018. https://www citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2015/11/18/today-ashevile- history-new-pack-ibrary-dedicated/75877836; ® Gordon, though a member of this committee, was never a library trustee himself. Meetings of the Board of Trustees, January 17 and February 21, 1980. Asheville-Buncombe Library System, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC.18 4) Absent a sale, could the City transfer ownership to'a Library Trust? 5) What are the implications of the County assuming ownership of the collection? 6) Could the sale of “choice items” of the collection be used for funding to preserve the remainder? It would take more than six years of negotiations and hearings before a court order finally settled these points.™* To begin with, County Attomey Floyd Brock indicated that he would need a letter from the A- BLS board stating why it was “impracticable” to carry out the provisions of the Sondley will, before the County Commissioners could begin to take any action to set the will aside.” The board, recognizing the complexity of situation in which any step could be the wrong one, agreed to take no action until these legal issues could be resolved, The library would instead continue to hold Sondley while providing improved security and regulation of relative humidity. Even this would take some doing, as the board envisioned an alarm system for the eollection’s closed stacks, a conservator to provide collection treatment and staff training, a commitment to eroxing original materials for research use, and an appraisal of the collection’s market value. All of this proved controversial almost immediately and revealed a rift of some width and depth between library staff and board members, and certainly between the director and his board, Dr. Bruce Greenawalt’s Objectives Commitiee, from which the Sondley Committee had sprung in 1979, was firmly committed to its focus on special collections generally and the North Carolina Collection particularly. The committee resolved that these collections be subject to controlled access and security consistent with their value to the library and its patrons. Brown objected to the physical separation of special collections, felt that the library had more pressing priorities, and expressed the concern of his staff in promoting the library’s openness and accessibility. He also maintained that the library should stay clear of providing genealogical services (a hallmark of special collections) that tied up acquisition funds and staff resources.” ‘This conflict was not about to find resolution any time soon, When Board Chair Mary Lloyd Frank asked whether there were any plan in place to dedicate time each week to the “maintenance” of the Sondley Collection, Brown remarked that nothing more than “basic. services” would be so devoted.” As the collection was already “behind locked doors” in closed * Discussion Regarding the Dispasition of the Sondley Collection, Anthony Lord Papers, 1955-1992. MS069.004C, ‘North Carolina Collection, Pack Memorial Library, Asheville, NC. * rom ms notes that Lord took of his meeting with Brock, Moore, and Henry Teich of the Buncombe County Attorney's office, May 19, 1980. Discussion Regarding the Disposition of the Sondiey Collection, Anthony Lord Papers. Although the City had already set aside the will in agreeing to Pack's voluntary racial integration inthe fell ‘of 1964, the County had not itself been part ofthat determination. saeeting ofthe Board of Trustees, November 20, 1980: ® seeting ofthe Board of Trustees, January 25, 1982 * Meeting of the Board of Trustees, August 20, 198419 stacks, he regarded an alarm system as inadvisable, as “it would be a shame to separate the North Carolina Collection from the rest of the collections.” It would also be unnecessary, given his view that the collection was no more inherently special or valuable to the library than another, Controlled access, in fact, might encourage theft by implying such special value. He maintained that for two generations the library had focused on the North Carolina Collection and Sondley Reference Library, despite budget limitations and a more'natural prioritization of funds devoted to general readership.' ‘The board, however, looked to set policy based on 4 Survey of Materials in the North Carolina Collection Which Should Receive Special Storage, a fourteen-page typescript prepared by then- Adult Services Coordinator Marion McGuinn, recommending for special attention:' 1) Materials in fragile condition 2) Manuscripts and typescripts 3) North Carolina imprints before 1850 4) Materials of special nature or character 5) First-edition fiction 6) Autographs When Dr. Greenawalt reiterated his committee’s desire to seck greater attention for security and maintenance measures for special collections, Ed Epstein of Central Adult Services claimed that, “reasonable security is being taken.”" As for preservation, Peter Vari, the current Adult Services Coordinator, estimated that in ten to twenty years, the Sondley Collection would have to be “shoveled out the back door,” while Brown maintained that “it is in the nature of a library to dispose of books to make room for new ones."!> If board and senior staff agreed on anything, it was that a sale of selected volumes from the Sondley might bear a close look. As Anthony Lord had recorded in a private note to himself, “Why not sell the Sondley Collection and resolve fit] at one stroke...”!' For the majority of board members, proceeds from a sale would provide funds for preserving what remained. For Brown, weeding Sondley might help divert attention to the more traditional mission of supporting the more general needs of library patrons. And so in May 1983, following three years of wrangling, the board formed a subcommittee of one trustee, Walter McGuire, and Director Brown to explore the legal possibility of a sale of selected books from the Sondley Collection, ® Meeting of the Board of Trustees, October 29, 1981 © Meeting of the Board of Trustees, April 15, 1982 " meeting of the Board of Trustees, November 19, 1981 3 ideeting of the Board of Trustees, November 19, 1981 © naecting of the Board of Trustees, une 16, 1983 ** From ms notes in Lord’s hand, dated January 30, 1980, Discussion Regarding the Disposition of the Sondiey Collection, Anthony Lord Papers.20 before charging the Sondley Committee to determine more broadly how the library could 1) maintain endangered materials; 2) select materials for sale; 3) develop procedures for a sale; and 4) determine uses for sale’s proceeds, "“* How exactly, at this point in the late summer of 1983, did the A-BLS define the Sondley Collection? According to Mr. McGuire, the collection now held 36,000 volumes “less whatever has been lost, destroyed, or worn out.” Of these, there were 9,000 volumes of history (including 3,000 folded into the North Carolina Collection) and another 9,000 volumes of literature, natural history, architecture, and other subjects. The vault held 1500 presumably high-value volumes, with the remainder in closed-stack storage, of which at least some remained in packing boxes. Ed tein, after touring the Sondley Committee through the collection, told its members that it was possible that the whole collection could be disposed of, excepting the Carolina holdings and those on Southeast Native American subjects, noting as he did how unusual it might be for an agency the size of A-BLS to hold onto such a large and valuable collection—especially without the staff, budget, and physical space to care for it. When Chandler Gordon again raised the issue of appraising the collection for its market value, Mr. Epstein estimated that the vault’s holdings represented about 65% of the collection’s total value." These very round numbers must have persuaded the board that an appraisal was in order, and so when Mr. Gordon offered his services, the trustees accepted them, after at least nominally considering the advisability of an appraiser who, though not « Wustce, did happen to sit on the Sondley Committce.!”” The agreement that A-BLS made with Gordon involved a collection wide, item-level, market value appraisal (as recommended by the Buncombe County Attorney's office) that would exclude any Carolina subject holdings. Mr Gordon would earn an appraiser's fee of $20 per hour, to a maximum of $4800, with expenses payable by the appraiser. Work would begin October 1, 1984, to be completed by the following July, all from funds on loan from the Library Trust administered by the A-BLS Friends group.'* With the Sondley matter “in the hands of the appraiser,"" A-BLS turned its attention to determining the legality of the collection’s sale, and the expenditure of its sale's proceeds. County Attorney Keith Allen at this point tuned the matter over to Assistant Attomey Rebecea Knight, who advised the board that Superior Court Judge C. Walter Allen would hold hearings in preparation for a court ruling in re Sondley.""° With Anthony Lord expressing his concem that 5 Meeting of the Board of Trustees, June 16, 1983. *5 meeting of the Board of Trustees, August 18, 1983. 7 Meeting of the Board of Trustees, Septernber 15, 1983 4©8 syeeting of the Board of Trustees, August 16, 1984, The County Attorney's office, as reported in the August 16 ‘meeting, had required that every single item in the Sondley collection would have to be appraised, although the Superior Court required no appraised values for any material withheld from sale, Peter Vari, of A-BLS Adult Services, wrote the final terms of Gordon's hiring as appralser. 3° Meeting of the Board of Trustees, November 15, 1984 *° Meeting of the Board of Trustees, June 21, 19842a the board “not be locked into undesirable action” by a court ruling, the matter now lay in the hands of the courts as well"! Both moved slowly. The minutes of A-BLS board meetings noted that Ed Epstein’s fall from his apartment's roof had delayed the appraisal’s progress. Later meetings simply reported that “Chan Gordon is working on the Sondley project” and “Chan Gordon will be 70% through his appraisal by the end of May.”'"? The County, in the meantime, acknowledged that Judge Allen would require a detailed draft document accounting for the library's proposed expenditures of sale proceeds—something A-BLS could not provide in advance of the appraisal," Finally, on 13 August 1985, Gordon submitted his report appraising “that portion of the Sondley Collection not designated as part of the reference collection of A-BLS” and omitting “obvious North Carolina material.” Working from “appropriate lists of books” supplied by library staff, Gordon had physically divided books into four categories of value — a) under $25, b) $25 to $150; ¢) $150 to $500; and d) extremely rare — arriving at the total appraisal of $439,679 for “cach book and pamphlet.” Six days later, board meeting minutes reiterated that this figure covered all Sondley material “not integrated into library collections.” Volumes stored in the library’s vault represented $240,000 of the total figure. Four of those volumes alone held a value of $110,000." Gordon’s appraisal would become part of a larger draft document that outlined the Sondley Reference Library's scope, its association with the library’s North Carolina Collection and general reference holdings, its physical storage and public accessibility, its physical condition and its usefulness to general library patrons. The draft proposed as well the plans for a sale of selected materials, the use of funds derived from the sale’s proceeds, the prioritios for use, and the benefits thereof. ‘The draft identified 5000 Sondley volumes in use in the North Carolina Collection and 1000 volumes as part of the library’s general reference collection—both available on open shelves for public use. The remaining volumes, including 600 in the library’s fire~ resistant vault, were held in closed stocks. The entire collection appeared as part of the library's public catalog and could, at least in theory, be called for by a patron, The collection’s artefactual collections remained in closed storage, except for the coin collection (held in a safe-deposit box), the archaeological collection (on deposit at the Westem [North Carolina] Regional Archives in Asheville), a collection of birds’ eggs held on loan by the Westem North Carolina Nature Center =! Meeting of the Board of Trustees, October 17, 1985 * Meeting of the Board of Trustees, February 28, March 22, and Apri! 11, 1985, The board had earlier agreed that Epsteln as a member of the library staff would assist Gordon in his appraisal. *S The Sondley Committee formally asked the board for a draft of specific requests for the expenditure of sale proceeds during the board meeting of June 20, 1985. the physical categorization of books for sale is described in the August 1, 1984, agreement between Captain’s Bookshelf (Gordon's book store) and the A-BLS board rather than in the appraisal document itself, or the minutes of the August 19, 1985, board meeting. Gordon ultimately did not conduct the appraisal on an item-by-item basis, ashe confirmed in an interview with the author on 14 August 2018,2 (also in Asheville), and an assortment of gems on loan to the city’s Colbum Earth Science Museum).!"8 ‘The document maintained that the materials in closed storage had little interest for brary patrons and, while not serving the public’s needs, still required maintenance and storage facilities. Materials of little to no public value could be sold “in the open market,” thus freeing valuable storage space and staff resources, while funding the maintenance of those retained and useful volumes. The document emphasized a socially responsible criterion for selecting materials {for retention, one based on publie service rather than market value, In fact, only volumes considered for sale, under the direction of senior Adult Service librarians, were appraised. The board reserved final approval of, and responsibility for, the sale’s contents. ‘The document estimated the scope of the sale at approximately 20,000 volumes, to be sold as a lot, following the distribution of public notices, advertisements in antiquarian journals, ‘announcements to book dealers and collectors, and press releases. The sale would then proceed by competitive bidding through the submission of sealed bids or al open auction, with item-level bidding on more valuable materials. The board specifically cites the Gordon appraisal’s figure of $439,679 as a fair market estimate but advised that the retention of additional volumes could bring the estimate closer to $350,000. Finally, the board laid out the library’s priurily of use for the sale’s proceeds, bascdon a list prepared by Director Brown and his senior staff: A) Reimbursement of the Library Trust for appraisal fees: $5000 1B) Consultation with a book conservator for recommended preservation and conservation measures for retained materials: $10,000 C) Administration of the consultation’s recommendations: $80,000 D) Modification of HVAC in special collections: $10,000 B) Transfer and reconstruction of the library vault and contents: $7000 F) Development of the North Carolina Collection: $10,000 G) Acquisition of exhibition cases for special-collection artifacts and books: $10,000 ) Computerization of lending, reserve, and public catalog services: balance ‘These documents were placed on deposit at the County Attomey’s office, which in April 1986 filed a formal petition with Judge Allen that the terms of the Sondley bequest, be set aside to allow for the sale of a portion of the collection’s contents.!"* Following a June 16 hearing, *° Meeting of the Board of Trustees, November 24, 1985. The entire draft document accompanies the meeting's minutes as an attachment, achieving board acceptance on December 19, 1985, subject to court approval. 2 Meeting of the Board of Trustees, April 14, 198623 attended by Greenawalt and Gordon of the A-BLS board; Epstein and Vari of the A-BLS professional staff; and Rebecca Knight of the County Attorney’s office, the A-BLS set in to awaiting the Judge’s decision in re Sondley.!"7 ‘The sale, if approved, would have to proceed without Kenneth Brown, who resigned his position effective March 1986 after a little over twenty years as Director of Libraries, the last of which involved the acrimonious debate with his board over special collections and Sondley. His successor, Douglas Perry of Cleveland County, North Carolina, enjoyed a welcome period of grace awaiting the court order, his dealings with Sondley apparently restricted to secking board approval for the indefinite loan of bird eggs to the Western North Carolina Nature Center.!!8 The board handed down their approval of the loan only a few days before receiving copies of Judge Allen’s 6 September 1986 order, approving the “sale of assets” while requiring a more detailed description of the sale’s plan, including an itemization of volumes to be sold, a determination of the manner of their sale, and an assignment of staff responsibility for the sale’s conduct.'"? While the board then began entertaining motions to rename the North Carolina Collection the “Sondley North Carolina Collection” or alternatively the “Sondley Western North Carolina Collection,””° Perry and staff began to execute a plan of sale. Intending first to compile a list of the forty to fifty most valuable books in the collection, Peter Vari settled on twenty-two titles that he estimated probably represented 80 to 85 porcent of the total value of materials for sale. ‘This brief catalog, together with a copy of Perry’s letter “to Various southeastern universities to test their interest”, was presented to the board at their 20 November 1986 meeting. In the meantime, A-BLS sent a letter to fifteen prospective buyers, receiving four responses. An academic library anda bookdealer, both unidentified, expressed interest in only part of the ‘material offered for sale. Waverly Auctions of Bethesda, Maryland, and Chapel Hill Rare Books (CHRB), of Carrboro, North Carolina, were prepared to make offers on the entire collection, provided that the material was available for inspection,'”! Peter Vari and Ed Epstein reported these developments at the board’s 18 December 1986 meeting, during which a seller's remorse briefly set in. Although Vari recommended that no rare books be kept that were not “useful,” Anthony Lord considered the sentimental value of Mr. Perry’s list of twenty-two, while Walter McGuire proposed holding out a title or two for display in the library. Tn the end, the board approved a motion (Lord abstaining) to sell all books not * Meeting of the Board of Trustees, June 19, 1986 28 Meeting of the Board of Trustees, August 28, 1986 *° In re Sondiey Charitable Trust 86CVS 228, General Court of Justice, Superior Court Division of Buncombe County, North Carolina, Authorization to execute a plan forsale, prior authorization to be specifically approved by the court inall aspects. September 5, 1986, Superior Court Judge C. Walter Allen. A copy ofthe order accompanies the minutes ofthe board's September 18, 1986 meeting as an attachment. 2 Meetings of the Board of Trustees, September 18, October 16, November 20, 1986 * Meeting of the Board of Trustees, December 18, 198624 useful to the North Carolina Collection, and to arrange for visits, and subsequent bids, from ‘Waverly Auctions and Chapel Hill Rare Books in the new year." Dale Sorenson, president of Waverly Auctions, responded first. On January 10, 1987, following his inspection of the Sondley Reference Library, Sorenson proposed to remove approximately 15,000 volumes selected from the 20,000 on offer, to be sold at three public auctions, the last of which to be conipleted within one year of removal. Payment would follow each auction within thirty to forty-five days. The total estimate for the sale series came to $430,000, subject to a 20% commission, The remaining 5000 volumes, having no auction value, were left for Tibrary sales via “dutch auction.” As part ofa consignment agreement, the property involved would be “recorded by the consignor on Xeroxed lists” from which no part of the inventory could.be withdrawn.” Douglas O°Dell, proprietor of Chapel Hill Rare Books, followed four days later with his offer “to purchase all the Sondley Collection demonstrated for: ‘sale,” as well as “those Sondley volumes with North Carolina content which have been withdrawn from sale and which are duplicates of the Pack Memorial Library holdings.” As so described, O’ Dell's version of the Sondley sale’s contents would fetch $220,000." Faced with two widely disparate bids shating neither a neighborhood offering price nor a matching description of contents, the board sel ua February 5, 1987, adjourning tothe vault to examine some of the Sondley volumes earmarked for sale. Lord again proposed retaining a symbolic piece, a “North Carolina Treasure,” of the Sondicy collection and suggested Catesby's Natural History. Would this decrease, he wondered, the proceeds of the sale by the $40,000 to $50,000 assigned as this treasure’s valuc? Then again, any negative public reaction to the Sondley sale might be offset by retaining Catesby. The board put off any decision on the matter and instead resolved to accept Waverly Auction’s bid, agreeing that Vari would report this decision to Judge Allen and fo O’Dell of CARB. ‘This did not in fact take place. Instend, Ed Epstein apparently had a much different discussion with Mr. O’Dell, resulting in a 25 February 1987 letter to Vari “confirming the offer of $375,000 for the Sondley collection and duplicate North Carolina-related material.” Once. brought before the board on 5 March, O°Dell’s revised offer carried the day. Catesby, 600 volumes of duplicate Caroliniana, and the rest of Sondley were headed for CHRB, as part of the “reconsideration” of the Waverly Auction proposal. Sorenson himself, as Mr. Vari reported, recommended that A~ BLS accept Mr. O’Dell’s new offer. By the end of Apfil, Judge Allen issued his Ordet 52 Meeting of the Board of Trustees, December 18, 1986 82 Dale Sorenson of Waverly Auctions, Bethesda MD, to Peter Vari of A-BLS, January 10, 1987 Douglas O'Dell of Chapel Hill Rare Books; Carrboro NC, to Peter Vari of A-BLS, January 14, 1987. The Sorenson and O'Dell letters appear as attachments to the minutes of the board’s meeting on February 5, 1987. 25 meeting of the Boord of Trustees, February 5, 198725 Approving Plan of Sale, accepting the contract’s terms of agreement, the description of the property to be conveyed, its purchase price, its transportation and delivery, and the authority of the Chair of Buncombe County’s Commissioners to execute the transaction.'?° And so it was done, O"Dell finished loading his purchase on May 7. The library's safe depos held its new collection of sale papers. The County Attomey’s office reviewed the procedures for the new Sondley Trust, to be administered by the Superior Court of Buncombe County “in accord with Mr. Sondley’s intent.” Sale proceeds would remain on deposit in an interest-bearing account. A-BLS would bring all requests for expenditures before the court, for approval by court order for specific use in keeping with a court-approved plan of general intent.!27 Perry endured an unwelcome opportunity to revisit the Sondley plan of sale when, in a 29 June 1987 letter from Ed Epstein, he learned that 155 pieces of correspondence from Maxwell Perkins had been inadvertently left behind in the library vault among the materials designated for sale to Chapel Hill Rare Books. O"Dell had returned 28 letters that were “clearly marked as part of the ‘Thomas Wolfe collection” but remained undecided on whether he would return the rest.'"8 Ina 29 July 1987 letter to O”Dell, Perry made clear that only books or volumes were to be conveyed, and that there had been no mention of correspondence photographs, maps, or artifuets. In a letter of his own five days later, O*Dell referred to the phrase “and other materials” in describing the Sondley offer and cited his meetings onsite with both Vari and Epstein to determine the exact, description and location of the collection for sale. He then made the counterclaim that library staff under Perry’s supervision had selectively removed items that had been indicated for sale," At this point, after consulting his board, Perry tured the matter over to County Attorney Keith Snyder, “who is handling contacts with Douglas O”Dell.”!*° Snyder for his part concentrated on. arranging O°Dell’s payment for his purchase before the contracted deadline of December 31, 1987, and it is interesting that in correspondence with Perry during that fall he referred himself to the sale as “books and other materials known as the North Carolina Related Materials."""' The ‘County did in fact receive payment from Chapel Hill Rare Books, on December 30.'? The ‘matter appeared only once more, in Perry's 8 June 1988 letter to Snyder, enclosing a "© Meeting of the Board of Trustees, March 5, 1987, O’Dell's letter to Peter Vari O'Dell appears as an attachment to the minutes 1p, Meetings of the Board of Trustees, May 7, June 4, 1987 22 Sondley himself never made Wolfe correspondence a part of his collection ® Meeting of the Board of Trustees, August 6 1987. Perrys letter of uly 29, 1987, and O'Del’s responce on ‘August 3 appear as attachments to the minutes of the August 6 board meeting. The minutes include as well an announcement of Ed Epstein's resignation to become a collection development librarian in Annapolis. *© eeting of the Board of Trustees, September 3, 1987 ® Keith Snyder and Rebecca Knight of Buncombe County Attorney’ Office to Douglas Perry and William Taylor of AcBLS, November 24 1987. ™ Meeting of the Board of Trustees, February 4, 1988, reporting that a check in the amount of $375,000 was received by Buncombe County in payment for the Chapel Hill Rare Books purchase ofa portion ofthe Sondiey collection.26 photocopied page from Chapel Hill Rare Books catalog #35 (Modern Literature June 1988), Lot 336 offers a collection of Maxwell Perkins letters for $7500. Perry makes mention that these letters had never been considered part of the Sondley “as desoribed in the contract,” and that ‘Chandler Gordon had assigned their value at $2000." IMI, Spending Sondley’s Money ‘With $375,000 of sale proceeds now on deposit with Buncombe County, a new body was born, the Sondley Proceeds Utilization Committee (SPUC). Although assured by Keith Snyder and Rebecca Knight of the County Attomey’s office that Judge Allen would approve any proposed expenditures “within the terms of the otiginal Sondley request bequest,’ committee members had already decided that a meeting with Judge Allen might win his permission to use Sondley funds to automate the library’s catalog and circulation services.'** As it was, the board sottled on a more modest request of $5000 as repayment for the 1984-85 Sondley appraisal and another $10,000 reserved for engaging a needs assessment consultant for the library’s remaining special collections, while Mr, Perry invited Peggy Hines of the State Archives of North Carolina’s ‘Western Regional Archives to recommend possible consultants.'** During this time the library also announced the hiring of Rob Neufeld as the new Adult Services coordinator, charged with increasing cooperation and efficiency as his chief responsibility.'*” With A-BLS in apparent post-sale mode, Perry announced his resignation in the spring of 1989 to accept a similar position in his hometown of Hampton, Virginia.’ A-BLS welcomed Edward Sheary as the new Director of Libraries at the same time that Morgan Barclay, Archivist at Bast Carolina University, began his needs assessment consultation." By August 1990, Barclay introduced an ambitious five-year plan for the library’s management of special collections. He assigned primary focus for collection development to materials documenting Asheville and Buncombe County history, Westen North Carolina tourism, and environmental issues, while recommending cooperative decisions on both broader geographic collection and Thomas Wolfe. He emphasized improved access to all special-collection resources, starting with the library’s vertical files, through the creation of a newspaper index and a project for microfilm preservation. He encouraged the pursuit of grant funding for local programming, oral histories, and continuing professional development provided by the Society of American Archivists, North Carolina Archivists, and other professional associations. The * Douglas Perry to Kelth Snyder, June 8, 1988. 13 rfecting of the Board of Trustees, May 5, 1988 5 eeting of the Board of Trustees, March 3, 1988 * ifecting of the Board of Trustees, une 2, 1988 ©" Meetings of the Board of Trustees, September 1, December 8, 1988 2 eeting of the Board of Trustees, May 17, 1989 *° Meeting of the Board of Trustees, April 5, 19907 board accepted the report within a week of its filing and voted to designate up to $100,000 to its execution (subject to court approval).'4° Judge Allen, on receiving the Barclay report and the request for funds to execute it, waited until January 1991 to express his concem that the Sondley Collection had not been inventoried prior to the sale. He subsequently asked for a list of the remaining collection’s significant books and artifacts, Sheary complied with the following list dated 21 February 1991:"4! Maps: 24 Books: 2430 titles (3871 volumes) Gems: on loan to Asheville’s Coburn Museum (now Asheville Museum of Science) ‘Weapons: (appraised by Richard Malone) Bird eggs: 297 Indian Artifacts: on loan to North Carolina’s Western Regional Archives in Asheville) Coins: It was, however, not until October that the judge formally asked board members to forward an order for funds to implement the Barclay report.'*? Even then, Library board chair William ‘Taylor had to resort on January 6 1992 to writing Judge Allen once more on the matter. His lotter outlined “the pressing preservation and access needs of special collections” as a whole, before ‘enumerating these needs in some detail: replacement of acidic boxes, folders, and other housing; updating of catalog descriptions; and computerization of finding aids. Materials at risk— particularly in the Thomas Wolfe collection—included books, correspondence postcards, photographs, manuscripts, maps, scrapbooks, newspapers, glass negatives, audio tapes and cassettes. Taylor closed by claiming again that the preservation and descriptive cataloging of the library's special collections fit comfortably into the purposed use of Sondley sale proceeds, as first defined by the Judge in his 1986 ruling.’ ‘When Judge Allen did at last rule in May 1992, he ruled narrowly in the matter of the Barclay report, yet with broad implications for library use of the Sondley ‘Trust. He approved $25,000 to implement Barclay’s recommendations. The full remainder of Sondley sale proceeds and interest to date were to be placed in perpetual trust, invested and managed by Buncombe County’s © Meeting of the Board of Trustees, September 6, 1990 Sheary: "This was difficult. The only clear proof of Sondley provenance was his intial or signature.” Author's interview * Meeting of the Board of Trustees, October 3, 1991 *© William Taylor, A-BLS board chair to Judge Allen, 6 January 1991 [sic, uncorrected to 1992], with copies to Keith Snyder, County Attorney's Office, and Ed Sheary, Director of Libraries. A copy of the letter has been post-attached to the minutes of the board's January 2, 1982, meeting.28 finance officer. The library board could request annually up to 75% of the trust's earned annual income to preserve and maintain the Sondley collection and provide conservation treatment for particular materials. Any excess could then be applied to other special collection holdings as identified by Barclay. The remaining 25% of annual income would revert to the trust. No part of the trust’s principal or income could apply to the general annual operating budget of A-BLS. Finally, the Sondley collection was to be officially designated by its original name~-Sondley Reference Library—with identifying signage mounted in a prominent area in the main library. ‘The judge based his ruling on his belief that “to comply with the intent of the Sondley will, itis necessary to use the proceeds in a defined way...The citizens of Buncombe County and Western North Carolina are best served if the proceeds are placed in perpetual trust.” In so ruling, the county’s Superior Court had in effect migrated the Sondley Reference Library from a material bequest to the city of Asheville to a perpetual trust maintained by Buncombe County for the preservation of the collection that remained." Although Taylor briefly considered a challenge to Judge Allen's ruling, the library quickly accommodated itself to the terms of the order, working directly with County Finance Officer James Roach on setting up line items to reflect the Sondley trust’s revenues and expenditures. ‘Anna Yount and Laura Gaskin of the library's senior staff began work on transferring special- collection manuscripts to archival folders and boxes, while placing the most fragile books in phase boxes. Director Sheary started forward with library automation funded not by Sondley but by the County, with matching funds from North Carolina LSCA grants.'** The terms of Judge Allen's order, in effect, disqualified the proceeds of the Sondley sale as a source for large-scale funding, In 2009, during the library’s extensive renovation and relocation of special collections to a dedicated space in the building’s lower level, the Sondley Trust was left untouched.'“* 1V. The Rest is Commentary ‘The Sondley Bequest ‘ ‘Was the Sondley Reference Library an unwelcome gift? The bequest came to the city of Asheville, not the library itself, but in any event neither had the means or mission to care for it or to take full advantage of its holdings beyond the Caroliniana materials. The Sondley-collection may have brought some renown to Asheville, but it never attracted the funding to support and presetve it, especially in view of its unfortunate debut at the start of a depression that bankrupted the city for the better part of five decades. Although American public libraries have traditionally supported special collections, some of them quite extraordinary, many have concentrated, as Asheville did, on regional and genealogical subjects, for which such Sondley items as, 1 re Sondley Chartable Trust 6(VS 228, General Court of lustice, Superior Court Division of Buncombe County, North Carolin, 21. May 1992. Judge Allens order i attached to the minutes ofthe board's tune 4, 1992, meeting. * Meetings of the Board of Trustees, June 4, July 2, 1992. + sheary:*Sondley funds had no role Inthe renovation or the creation of the NC Room.” Author’ interview29 illuminated manuscripts and incunabula might not be an easy fit. As early as the 1950s, reports by Lucille Kelling of the University of North Carolina’s School of Library Science'*” and by Lydenberg and Wyllie'* questioned Sondley’s value to local library patrons. Kelling proposed retaining the collection by merging its Caroliniana with the library’s general reference while storing the rest “without regard to accessibility.” Alternatively, Lydenberg and Wyllie concluded that some thought should at least fall to developing a network of circulating libraries around a central reference and research repository with Sondley and other special collections as its prime holdings.'"° That the library settled for the first altemnative’s not entirely benign policy of neglect over the other’s ivy-column concept of a Central Research Library did not in fact represent an overall solution. The 1965 Chait and Wamcke report in the end eame closest to providing the library with a way forward for the maintenance and development of special- collection holdings. By contrast, Philomena Dickey’s and Annie Westall’s dedication to the Sondley as an identifiable collection fully cataloged for public access went unrewarded, The collection in its final years survived as a poor relation in a home that could not provide for its care. Brown v Board of Library Director Brown’s conflict with his library board brought out issues in public librarianship that are never definitively resolved. Coming to Asheville as the first director of libraries in a network evolving toward a county-wide system, it was natural that he would champion a broadly defined mission aimed at serving a general base of patrons. He saw special collections as a special and therefore narrow benefit requiring dedicated funding and staff support to which his library's ‘budget would always be tied—as it had been, in his mind, for the past two. generations. Resources committed to Sondley were resources denied to some other library service that patrons might otherwise receive. In such a classic zero-sum calculus, Brown's belief in public libraries “always getting rid of old books to acquire new ones” couldn’t bear fruit. Instead, there would always be a Sondley, like it or not. It would always require care and attention, as its own separate collection, with restricted access, physically segregated, specially staffed, and called for by the few. As part of a special-collection repository, Sondley made perfect sense. As part ofa growing network of public libraries, it looked to Brown like a luxury.'** + Kelling, The Pack Memorial and the Sondley Reference Departments (see above). The library prepared an 11- page typescript copy of the report on December 10, 1976. Photocopies appear in an administrative folder, Sondley information, and in the Anthony Lord Papers, 1955-1992, Pack Memorial Library, North Carolina Collection, 1MS069,004C. + Final Drof of a Report ofthe Survey ofthe Asheville Reference and Circulation Library Systems, March 1956, Hm. Lydenberg and J.C. Wylie see above). ¥ Kelling, The Pack Memorial ond the Sondley Reference Departments 2 Lydenberg and Wyle, Survey of the Asheville Rejerence and Circulation Library Systems Ed sheary: “Ken was absolutely corget in his assessment ofthe Sondley, and absolutly wrong in his assessment of genealogy and special in general. That choice cos the library deary in community support and ed to the establishment Aj separate and private genealogical brary.” Author's interviewPutting a Figure to It Forster A, Sondley apparently never cataloged his collection, At least no extant inventory from the time of the bequest appears to have accompanied the library on its way to Asheville City Hall, ‘That was left to Philomena Dickey, who may or may not have finished the work. In any event, for the period that the Sondley sale was planned and executed, roughly 1980 to 1992, the collection’s size and scope of subjects enjoyed the fuzziest of descriptions', Given the parameters of the 1984-85 appraisal, these figures should bave been more clearly defined and reported in the minutes of library board meetings. Yet the only definite figures appear to be the appraised value of $439,679 and the sale purchase of $375,000. Fuzzy numbers most probably reflect the board’s uncertain assignment of volumes to a stay-or-go categotization necessary for a partial safe of holdings. There is certainly plenty of evidence for this, For one thing, the board had putatively withdrawn market value as a criterion for retention of Sondley volumes. Yet, at least one board member questioned whether retaining a high-value treasure such as Catesby's Natural History would markedly reduce the sale’s realized proceeds. For another, the sale as originally publicized did not include duplicate Caroliniana titles. Yet, such holdings saust have been available for at Jeast Mr. O”Dell’s inspection if he were to request these duplicates be included in the purchase price he initially offered. And then there was the matter of withholding a Caroliniana volume or two for special library exhibition, up for discussion at the same time that the board was reviewing bids that included such treasures. It all ‘begs the question of how exactly the Sondiey Reference Library was deveribed tu prospective purchasers, and what exactly the two leading bidders saw or did not see in their separate ‘examinations of the sale’s offering. Such uncertainty may explain es well the appearance of Max Perkins correspondence in the vault with the Sondley collection at the time Mr, O'Dell loaded his purchase for transport to Carrboro. By all appearances, the library’s physical and intellectual control over what constituted the Sondley Reference Library and what part of it was indeed for sale, was compromised by indecision, in both planning and execution, The decision to engage Chandler Gordon as the Sondley appraiser, on the other hand, appears solid. Gordon was and remains an experienced, knowledgeable antiquarian book dealer. The 2 Walter McGuire counted the Sondiley Reference Library holdings at 36,000 total volumes. These included 9000 history volumes, 3000 of which were in use in the North Carolina Collection; another 9000 volumes of literature, natural history, and architecture; and 1500 volumes in the vault (Meeting of the Board of Trustees, August 18, 1983.) The document submitted to the County Attorney's Office and Superior Court prior to Judge Allen’s ‘September 6 ruling in re Sondley, however, cites $000 volumes in use in the North Carolina Collection, with ‘another 1000 in general reference and 600 in vault storage (Mecting of the Board of Trustees, November 21, 1985.) That document's estimate of 20,000 volumes with “no current usefulness,” and therefore subject to sale, does agree with Waverly Auction’s estimate of 20,000 volumes as inspected in his January 1987 visit to Asheville. Judge Allen's April 24, 1987, order approving the pian of sale cites a looser estimate of 20,000-25,000 volumes "separated from the approximately 7000 volumes retained.” Four years later, Director Sheary counted 2430 “significant remaining books” (3873 volumes) without citing a total number of works remaining of works remaining. Finally, these varlous partial figures don't agree with estimate of over 40,000 “bound volumes” cited by Hickin in his 1937 magazine article (The State, August 7, 1937, 3}.31 board appears to have considered the propriety of engaging Gordon, who had been a member of the committee that determined, in its recommendations to the A-BLS board, the scope, planning, and execution of the Sondley sale. Members did also consider the advisability of entertaining proposals from other equally qualified, and more independent appraisers. In the end, Gordon, atrived at a appraised value whose accuracy gains support from the bids that Waverly Auctions and Chapel Hill Rare Books submitted. As for the outcome of the sale, A-BLS would have done well enough selecting either of the finalists. Certainly itis hard to imagine the Sondley lot, as offered, attracting either a private, individual collector or academic/tesearch library with the means and collection development policy to submit a serious bid. The collection, assembled broadly, eclectically, and enthusiastically (rather than rigorously), lacked both depth and focus outside of its Caroliniana acquisitions, and mos({})likely suffered fiom challenges to its physical condition, which could hardly have improved in the fifty-five years following its bequest to Asheville. The two bids, once Epstein completed his negotiations with O”Dell, were comparable, and it is easy to see why the library chose the relatively quick and final sale that O’Dell offered, with assurance of payment through a letter of eredit. However, that does leave the matter of charge and countercharge that Perry and O’Dell levelled at each other over the Max Perkins correspondence, a matter that the library seems to have let drop by the time that the disputed material appeared in a CHRB sale catalog. Douglas 0’ Dell, like Chandler Gordon, was a highly respected antiquarian dealer with a distinguished roster of clients, It is hard to imagine his desire to make off with a collection of letters that he would then offer for sale very publicgHly for $7500. Given the uneven control that the library had over the sale’s boundaries, it seems inuch more likely that the inclusion of material that had never belonged (o the Sondley Reference Library was at best an inadvertenee, and solely the responsibility of the library staff. ‘Taking Sondley to Court ‘The legal issues of in re Sondiey were clear enough. Again, Sondley gave his life’s work to the city of Asheville, leaving the publie library with a reference collection to maintain and administer without actual ownership or, until 1943, physical possession. When the city got out of the library business and the county jumped in, nothing effectively changed. A goverament entity managed by a board of commissioners owned a discrete special collection housed within a central library managed by its library system. For A-BLS to set aside the terms of the Sondley bequest, sell a portion of its contents, and use the sales proceeds for library operations, the approval of the county's Superior Court, at each step, was unavoidable. Although it won’t be easy to find a library anywhere happily consigning its collection development policies to a single Judge, there was no other path to take. A-BLS in actuality approached the court with some care ‘and skill, in great part to the direction of Walter McGuire, an attorney who delayed his retirement from the library board in order to obtain the court orders necessary to effect a legal sale of benefit to the library and sanctioned by the court.32 How well does Judge Allen come off in the end? A librarian’s worst dream could be to report to an authority that might not share the depth and passion of one’s own professional commitments. Yet, Allen's rulings in re Sondley were quite literally judicious in their desire to recognize the original intent of the bequest while acknowledging the burden that a wholesale retention of Sondley materials placed on the library’s human and material resources, Although he admitted that the bequest’s terms had long ago been set aside by the collection’s partial and nominal absorption into general reference, he insisted that the proceeds of the Sondley sale remain off- limits to annual operating budgets or to system-wide expenditures such as library-service automation—both of which he identified as County responsibilities. In reserving the Sondley ‘Trust’s principal and dedicating its interest to maintaining the collection’s remaining volumes specifically and to the Tibrary’s special collections as a whole, Allen preserved what was left of Sondley, materially and fiduciatily, as a special-use asset for research in the library’s local, regional, and genealogical collections. ‘The End is in the Beginning Librarian and author Edmund Lester Pearson had no involvement with Sondley’s collection, but his 1927 letter of resignation as Chief of Publications for the New York Public Library might prove. fitting conclusion to Sondiey’s story. On his leaving, he made a small donation of books from his personal collection, stipulating that his gift “should be catalogued on gold-edged catalogue cards, have a special bookplate with my picture and mane; be kuvwn henceforth as the Edmund Lester Pearson Collection; be kept in a room by themselves; and issued to readers by somebody in fall evening dress.” The Library was used to Pearson and got the joke, responding, with the hope “for some abatement of the rigor of the conditions attached to the gift,” and concluding, all in reciprocally good spirit, to be sure: Libraries and museums know, probably more keenly than other public institutions, the anguish that can be caused by impossible conditions attached to desirable gifts." 43 pearson’s letter and the Library's response appeor in “Conditional Gifts,” New York Public Library Bulletin 31 (July 1927), 570, and have been cited many times over. Pearson (1880-1937) actually visited Asheville twice. In ‘May 1907 he attended the American Library Association's conferénce at Asheville’s Battery Park Hotel, where he took part in the first meeting of the Bibliosmiles, a group of seven librarians whose moto was “Cheer up, ALA" In October of the following year, he moved to Asheville's Zealandia Lodge in order to catalog the book collection of Philip S. Henry. One should also note that Pearson worked for some years at the New York Public Library with then- head of reference Harry Miller Lydenberg, ater co-author of the 1956 survey of Pack Memorial Library's spectal collections. Iris a small library world.33 Addendum: Sondley and Integration. Access to the Sondley, resiricted by race, reflected the larger inequalities of Asheville’s segregated libraries. The system's annual report for 1948 recorded 17,431 registered borrowers from Pack Memorial Library, for whom the Sondiey Reference Library's 33,398 volumes and Pack Memorial Library’s 40,063 volumes were exclusively available. The Market Street (Colored Public Library”) branch served 1,943 borrowers for 6,107 volumes, The comparative volume-to-patron ratios, 4.21 to 3.14 respectively, reveal a disparity maintained by the Sondley’s restricted inventory.' Staff salaries told the same story. The Pack and Sondley librarians, according to the 1952 annual report, earned $3600 and $4500 respectively. The Market Street branch’s entire staff's salaries totaled $2238.'°* Meanwhile, there was Market Street’s low circulation to consider. Annie Westall of Pack Memorial’s board attributed the problem to “the drabness of the library entrance and rooms.” Pack Librarian Margaret Ligon reported that she, Annie Westall, Anthony Lord, and [Asheville City manager} Weldon Weir “had investigated another location with the idea of moving the Colored Library” but considered it advisable to redecorate instead. In the interim, the board considered book mobile service for two months as an experiment “in one of the county Negro settlements,” before approaching J.C. Daniels, principal of the Shiloh Elementary School, who met with library board members to discuss service to “a large portion of the negro population of Buncombe County through a deposit stop located in the Shiloh school.” The books at Shiloh did not circulate “to any marked degree,” but by the end of the year, the branch did report improved circulation. Sondley’s racial restrictions attracted the attention of at least one outside observer. In a letter to Margaret Ligon dated just after the close of World War II, Francis Henshaw wrote: However, to be perfectly frank, how could a building housing the Sondley Library be a true memorial to all the men and women who fought in the war when colored citizens are excluded from its use, and how could you expect the colored citizens {0 contribute to a memorial for whites only? Certainly, if.a memorial incorporating the Sondley Library were finally chosen, it would seem incumbent

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