a history of slavic studies

[Hugh Olmsted]

Dear colleagues: 
On the heels of the Slavic-Studies citations I sent out a short time ago, I thought I might mention another addendum, a bit of a curio concerning a very long strung-out research project of my own, now stretching back almost 30 years. It is still unpublished, but, I hope, not for too much longer. It involved contributions of Russian books to the Harvard Library by the first U.S. ambassador to Russia, John Quincy Adams, a donation initiated by a request from the University's president on the eve of Adams' departure for St. Petersburg. A similar request at the same time by the lexicographer Noah Webster yielded some volumes for the latter as well. All these books survive in the Harvard and Yale Libraries, respectively -- interestingly I discovered the larger part of the Harvard books just standing in the open Widener stacks, many with Adams' autograph; and promptly had them transferred to the Houghton Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 

The project was first presented in germ as: "John Quincy Adams' contributions to the Harvard Library Slavic collections" (Paper delivered at the American Library Association annual midsummer conference, Chicago, July, 1985). 

I then expanded and mounted it as an exhibition: "Russica for the Harvard Library and Noah Webster: John Quincy Adams' contribution to Russian studies in the United States" (Exhibition, Widener Library, Harvard University, November, 1987--coinciding with the AAASS Annual Convention, Boston, Nov. 4-6; and again with revisions in January, 1993 as "Opening a window on Russia: John Quincy Adams' contribution to Russian studies in the United States"). 
Adams' contributions to Harvard and Webster served as a significant early contribution to Russian studies in the U.S. I trust my resulting article will appear before too much longer. 

Hugh Olmsted 
----- Original Message -----

From: "Alexey Vdovin" <alexey.vdovin1985 at GMAIL.COM> 
To: SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU 
Sent: Saturday, August 24, 2013 1:48:31 PM 
Subject: [SEELANGS] a history of slavic studies 

Dear Colleagues, 
could you suggest any appropriate books / articles/ handbooks on the history of slavic linguistics / slavic studies (история русистики) in Russia and the West (esp. in the 19 cent.). 
Thank you. 
With best, 

-- 
Alexey Vdovin / Алексей Вдовин, PhD 
доцент факультета филологии, 
Национальный исследовательский университет 
"Высшая школа экономики", Москва 
http://www.hse.ru/org/persons/61713299 
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