Charters Collection images, 1993 - 1994

File — Box: 11

Identifier: MSS-SM 088

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

25 5”x 7” photographs of plates from books in the Butler University Special Collections Charters Collection. They include photographs of plates with European depictions of people, landscapes, and customs in the South Seas. It is unclear how the repository acquired this collection; it is also possible that the repository created this collection. Some of the photographs are from books regarding Captain Cook’s voyages to the South Seas.

Dates

Creation: 1993 - 1994

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research. When requesting access to a small collection, please include the File Identifier (eg. MSS-SM ###) in your request.

Historical Note

The William F. Charters South Seas Collection is among the oldest special collections held by the libraries of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. The collection focuses upon primary accounts prepared by European explorers, missionaries, and other observers of the cultures of the South Pacific islands during the period of European contact in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. William F. Charters was an Indianapolis accountant who left his collection of mostly English-speaking books regarding the South Seas to Butler University upon his death in 1931.

Extent

0.01 Linear Feet (1 folder)

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

Additional Description

Related Materials

Geib, George W., "The William F. Charters Collection: An Introduction" The William F. Charters South Seas Collection Collection / (1994): vi-x. Available at https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/facsch_papers/801

General

Archivist Kyle Stearns investigated this collection in 2024 and was able to determine a few of the books from which the images are taken; this is noted on the photograph sleeves. Gayle O’Hara created this collection guide in July 2024. This collection was previously in the Rare Books section of Special Collections, Rare Books, and University Archives at Butler University; given that the images are taken from multiple books, the repository decided to process as a small manuscript collection. It is possible that the images were created by the repository circa 1993-1994, perhaps related to the creation of “The William F. Charters Collection: An Introduction.”