History @ CUL

About History @ CUL

History @ CUL was created to alert the broad community of Cornell scholars and students interested in history to library activities that may be of interest. It will include announcements of new print and electronic resources that may be of interest, other recent acquisitions, trial access to licensed historical databases, software tools of particular use to historians, and workshops.

Comments and suggestions are welcome, and may be sent to Virginia Cole, Ph.D., Selector for U.S. and General European History, and Archaeology, Classics, and Medieval Studies at vac11@cornell.edu.

George Lincoln Burr, a member of the Cornell Class of 1871, was University President Andrew D. White’s personal secretary and librarian.

Originally hired when he was a sophomore, Burr worked closely and collaboratively with President White in collecting the over 30,000 books that White donated to the Cornell University Library. When this collection was moved to the new University Library (now Uris Library), Burr became the first curator of the White Historical Library. He is credited with building and enriching the Library’s collections on the Reformation and witchcraft. He was also a popular professor in the Cornell History department .

The artist, Roland Herbert Bainton, a reknowned Yale historian and Reformation scholar, wrote a biography of Burr: George Lincoln Burr: His Life (1943). (Olin Library E175.5 .B96)

The original pen and ink drawing is on display in the A. D. White Library in Uris Library.