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The Creswell Library of Islamic Art and Architecture at the American University in Cairo Part One: in the Presence of the Original Owner, 1956-73

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Joyce Pressey Tovell*
Affiliation:
Cairo, Egypt
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Abstract

In 1956 the American University in Cairo (AUC) committed itself to the formidable task of transforming a purchased personal library into a specialized university library supporting research and teaching in a new curriculum in Islamic art and architecture. The library’s original owner, K. A. C. Creswell, the eminent British historian of Islamic architecture, became at age 77 the university’s first professor in the discipline. An agreement that he would have exclusive use of the library during a three-year teaching period set the pattern for later years. Until 1973, while Creswell remained in Cairo, the uncatalogued library, though used by Islamic art faculty and their thesis-writing students, was barely accessible to other Islamic art students and faculty in related fields. Secrecy surrounding the library’s purchase hindered the university’s dealings with Creswell. When the Suez War interrupted final arrangements, Creswell’s exemption from the government-ordered expulsion of British nationals, and permission to move the books to the university, were secured by telling the government of Egypt that the library was Creswell’s gift to AUC.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1992

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References

1. Cairo: AUC Press, 1961; Supplement (1), 1973; Second Supplement, eds., Pearson, J. D. and Scanlon, G., 1984.Google Scholar
2. Early Muslim Architecture, 2 vols. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932-40), reprint (New York: Hacker), 1977; Muslim Architecture of Egypt, 2 vols, with vol.1 in 2 parts (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952-59; reprint (New York: Hacker), 1976.Google Scholar
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10. The second volume of Early Muslim Architecture weighed 20 pounds; see Raby, Julian, ‘Reviewing the Reviewers’, Muq 8, p.5.Google Scholar
12. McLain’s predecessor John Badeau (later, U.S. Ambassador to Egypt) had tried to purchase the library, Murphy, p.134. McLain’s first approach probably occurred in October 1955, AUCA: McLain to Douglas. Horton, 10/20/55.Google Scholar
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Dr. Kessler, who considers the library a gift, believes ‘the eventual arrangement was a life-time appointment as a Distinguished Professor … with a salary’ (her emphasis, note to au., 4/15/92). This description, though roughly resembling the result, does not specify what salary-earning service the Distinguished Professor Emeritus performed for the university.Google Scholar
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25. Murphy, p.50.Google Scholar
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33. AUCA:KACC, ‘Promotion and Leave Record’, 10/67, retrospective to 4/56, updated through 1972-73. Inflation obviously had diminished the value of an annual payment originally higher than most AUC faculty salaries. For reference to compensation with no indication of service, AUCA: McLain to Creswell, 10/29/62; for ‘honorarium’, AUCA: Crabbs to Creswell, 5/4/67, 5/22/72. A fourth raise not on the Promotion … Record appears probable, AUCA:KACC, Creswell to KACC, 5/22/72. Creswell referred to ‘my salery [sic]’, AUCA: KACC, Creswell to Crabbs, 5/9/70.Google Scholar
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35. Procedural steps were needed, but she was told in the earliest discussions that the funds were available. Kessler interview, 4/14/92; AUCA:KACC A. Horton to John Marshall, 10/28/57.Google Scholar
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39. The sum negotiated was well below the university’s cost at publication. Documents of 3/7 and 3/15/56 specify $10,000 maximum to include advertising and promotion; an undated document labeled ‘Document C LE 3500 maximum (c. $10,000); by November, 1960 AUC Press was relaying estimates from the English manufacturer of, £5643 equivalent to c. LE5643 (at 1962 exchange rates c. $16,000). AUCA:McLain to Creswell 3/7/56, 3/15/56; AUCA: KACC n.d.; AUCA: Press J. Lehman to McLain, 11/3/60.Google Scholar
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