Acquisition: |
(David Nelson (2000: 203)) describes the acquisition of the Sanskrit manuscripts in the University of Pennsylvania Library as follows:
“
The University of Pennsylvania Library possesses a collection of almost 3,300 Indic manuscripts, the largest such collection in the Western hemisphere. While the vast majority of these manuscripts are from
India, there are also a number of manuscripts from
Burma,
Thailand,
Sri Lanka, and
Tibet.
Some of the manuscripts had been acquired in chance fashion by the
Library and the
University Museum before 1930, but in that year, at the request of Professor W. Norman Brown (1892-1975), Provost Josiah Penniman provided a sum of money to purchase Indic manuscripts. Shortly thereafter he obtained a donation from the late Mr. John Gribbel. Substantial contributions from Dr. Charles W. Burr, the
Faculty Research Fund, and the
Cotton Fund soon followed. The bulk of the manuscripts are the result of purchases made using these funds in
India, between 1930 and 1935, under the direction of Professor W. Norman Brown.
”
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