Unexpected donation of Dutch English language textbooks – Jan van Griethuysen

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A couple of weeks ago we received an unexpected and very welcome donation of Dutch English language textbooks from Jan van Griethuysen. He accompanied the box of books and other materials (which he has listed in the file attached to this posting) with the following touching note:

The Hague, Holland 20th Oct. 2009

"Writing to you now is someone whose pastime it is to visit such events as car-boot-sales and flea-markets in search of old things, in this case usually books and papers, worth donating to archives and museums. What I find, mostly Dutch material, of course, I then give to the most appropriate institution.

Some time ago now, searching the internet for a place to which I could give a particular book I had found, I happened across your ELT-archive, and well aware of all the old English course-material I had seen in the past, I decided in future not to ignore such material, but to buy it for you. And so in the year that followed I stockpiled English-language teaching-books, found quite randomly at the flea-markets and jumble sales I had been to, until I had so many that it seemed time to go in search of a suitable cardboard box. I found one, and so it is that I can now surprise you with this, admittedly rather motley, collection. In my ignorance I may well have bought entirely unsuitable things, and so please feel free to discard anything you do not consider appropriate.

And that is all - I can but hope that I have not wasted your time, and that a percentage at least of this unexpected donation will prove to be worthy of accession to your ELT collection."

These materials are indeed very relevant to our collection, and will be catalogued and shelved in due course. Thank you very much, Jan!

Richard Smith : 16 Nov 2009 15:04 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem