The University of Iowa Libraries has been awarded a $20,000 grant from The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation to create a digital collection of British writer James Henry Leigh Hunt’s correspondence. This collaborative project draws on The University of Iowa’s collection of Hunt materials as well as the research files of Dr. David R. Cheney (1922-2006), a UI alumnus and Hunt scholar, whose papers are held at the Ward M. Canaday Center at the University of Toledo Libraries.

The UI Libraries will digitize 1,600 autograph letters from 1790-1858, transcripts and catalog records. Unlike other digitization projects that offer only the text of correspondence, this new digital collection will present images of the autograph letters, be full-text searchable and provide scholarly transcripts of the letters.  A description of the project can be found at http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/leighhunt/index.html. The digitized letters will become part of the Iowa Digital Library.

The UI Libraries acquired a substantial collection of Hunt materials in 1933 from Cedar Rapids publisher Luther Brewer. Over the ensuing years, the Libraries has continued to expand this collection.

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), Romantic writer, editor, critic and contemporary of Byron, Shelley and Keats was at the center of the literary and publishing world in London during the Romantic and Victorian periods of the early 19th century. His extensive correspondence reflects his intimate knowledge of literary, artistic, political and religious spheres in these key periods of British cultural history. Hunt eagerly penned thousands of letters, many of which survive.

“It is a great honor,” Sid Huttner, Head of Special Collections said, “to bring together the Libraries’ 80 years of collecting Hunt’s letters, often one by one; Cheney’s lifetime work; and the generosity of the Delmas Foundation to create a resource that promises to enrich 19th century scholarship in fundamental ways.”

The granting agency, The Delmas Foundation emphasizes the support of research libraries, among other areas, “to improve the ability of research libraries to serve the needs of scholarship in the humanities and the performing arts, and to help make their resources more widely accessible to scholars and the general public.”

“Working with these letters has been an exciting project,” says Nana Holtsnider, project manager and Ruth Bywater Olson Fellow in Special Collections. “I’ve been able to delve into a very important collection and develop a venue to make these intriguing letters more accessible to researchers and scholars.”