The Art History Collection (also known as “East Asian Special Collections”) is a non-circulating collection of basic primary sources, secondary studies, and reference works on East Asian art and art history. Additional resources can be found in the circulating collection.
The collection is located at the west end of the main reading room and is searchable in UC Library Search.
Soon after his arrival in Berkeley to become the first holder of the Agassiz Chair of East Asian Languages and Literature, John Fryer put his own library of approximately 2,000 volumes on deposit for the use of faculty and students, subsequently bequeathing it to the University.
The Fryer Library contains standard editions of basic works of Chinese history and literature. It also includes some of the publications Fryer worked on as a technical translator at the Jiangnan Arsenal, Shanghai; manuscript vocabulary lists he compiled in the course of that work; and publications he produced to introduce Western science and technology to the Chinese intelligentsia. The collection is searchable in UC Library Search.
The Manchu collection comprises approximately 60 titles in 650 volumes. Most include parallel text in Chinese. Originally intended for the use of students of literary Chinese, the collection is weighted toward translations the Confucian classics, Chinese literature, and works on language.
Researchers wanting an overview of the collection are referred to Hartmut Walravens, Vorläufiger Titelliste der Mandjurica in Bibliotheken der USA (A preliminary title list of Manchu books in the libraries of the USA), in the East Asian Library’s reference collection.
The Mongolian collection comprises approximately 133 titles. About 90 of these are Buddhist texts printed by woodblock, 60 of which are “Peking xylographs.” The collection also includes 12 manuscripts.
Researchers wanting an overview of the collection are referred to Lajos Bese, The Mongolian Collection in Berkeley, California, in the East Asian Library’s reference collection.