The Eric F. Menke Collection

From the extensive personal collection of Eric F. Menke the Library has received a gift of more than 1,300 volumes, and 600 maps, prints, photographs, and manuscripts. The gift includes an extensive collection of books by and about Goethe; many early and rare books, prints, photographs, and maps pertaining to Washington, D.C.; books and graphic materials relating to historic urban plans and planning, including the cities of Frankfurt and Wiesbaden; a complete copy of Mathias Merian's Topographia Alsatiae, 1663; the English architect Batty Langley's copy of the 1717 English edition of Dugdale with the first volume of Stevens' continuation, 1722; and a remarkable series of original photographic prints of construction work on the United States Capitol, 1861-63.