Darlington Collection

William Darlington was an attorney from Pittsburgh and spent much of his life collecting maps, books, magazines, and manuscripts. Some of these date back to the 1500s. The earliest maps of the New World are also part of the collection Devoted much of his 74 years to collecting some of the earliest printed maps of the New World. This space was constructed and furnished with antiques that were bequeathed to the university by the Darlington family, and features moldings and green walls that are duplicated from the 18th mansion Graeme Park, a Pennsylvania colonial-era governor's residence. The library was entered through a memorial vestibule and consisted of a central room with eight alcoves and contained, among other notable furnishings, a wrought iron entrance gate by Samuel Yellin. The original, sometimes fragile, materials of the library were placed in storage for availability to researchers upon request. In 2009, following digitization and protective storage of the library's materials, the space was renovated by architect Rob Pfaffmann in order to house the university's Humanities Center which, while retaining much of the original character and furnishings, now includes office space for staff and visiting fellows. == Scope of the collection ==

The focus of the collection is on early American history and literature, and also includes rare maps and atlases, works on ornithology and natural history, and early travel narratives. O'Hara Darlington also contributed his collections of Victorian literature, sporting books, and works of illustrators and caricaturists. Personal and business papers Darlington collected personal letters authored by General James O'Hara to his wife and contemporaries that describe the conditions of Fort Pitt in the 1790s. One of these includes a description of the colonists' interactions with the surrounding Native American tribes. Some papers document the business dealings of James O'Hara's land from 1785. General James O'Hara's diary is part of the collection and documents his opinions on immigration and glassworks that he built. Atlases and maps that is part of the Darlington Digital Library Included in the collection are thirty-six rare maps, eight of which show various iterations of the world, including Gerhard Mercator's world view created in 1613. Some maps are large and unbound. Others are included in rare books. These maps were part of a June 12, 2015 exhibition at Hillman Library conducted to commemorate the 200th anniversary of William Darlington's birth on May 1, 1815. Lithographs Historical lithographs illustrating buildings and people are part of the collection. Art The ASC presented content from the Darlington collection that consisted of original Audubon prints on November 16, 2013. These were not reproductions but some of the original sized and printed editions by John James Audubon. One of these has been an exhibition highlighting the ASC's holdings related to map makers and cartography. The collection houses some of the oldest maps known that document cartography in the New World. {{cite web ==References==