James Ford Bell Library

Item

Country

Name of institution (official language of the state)

The University of Minnesota Libraries’ Department of Archives and Special Collections

Language of name of institution

eng

Contact information: postal address

Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 21st Ave South, 55455 Minneapolis, MN

Contact information: phone number

001 612 624 7469

Contact information: web address

https://www.lib.umn.edu/collections/special

Contact information: email

ascref@umn.edu

Title (official language of the state)

James Ford Bell Library

Language of title

eng

Creator / accumulator

James Ford Bell Library

Date note

5th century/19th century (bulk: 15th century/18th century)

Language(s)

eng

fra

ita

lat

por

spa

Type of material

Textual Material

Scope and content

The James Ford Bell Library comprises rare books, manuscripts, maps, archival collections, and other materials that document the history and impact of trade and cultural exchange in particular in the Early Modern period. It holds various materials from government proclamations to handwritten letters and trading companies' records.
Regarding the Western Sephardic Diaspora, a mention should be done to the letter-book of the Lisbon office of the Florentine mercantile firm of Medici-Beroardi and its successors (1726 fMe), including 284 letters in Portuguese and Italian from 1726 to 1742. Among the correspondents of the Medici-Beroardi, there are some Sephardic merchants based in London, such as Abraham and Jacob Franco, Benjamin Mendes da Costa, and Francis Salvador. These letters report the business ventures maintained by these merchants with Portugal and its overseas territories. For some examples of their content, see Trivellato (2009).
A digital copy of this item is available online:

1726 fMe

Archival history

The original nucleus of the collection was composed of about 600 volumes that James Ford Bell donated to the University of Minnesota in 1953. Later, the collection increased with new acquisitions and donations.

Administrative / Biographical history

The James Ford Bell Library was founded in 1953 after James Ford Bell (1879-1961), an American philanthropist, bibliophile, and businessman donated his collection to the University of Minnesota. At the time, the library was composed of about 600 books, with a special focus on reports of European travellers in North America, in particular the Jesuits. This collection grew over the years, especially thanks to the endowment left by Bell to the library at his death in 1961. The library was first located in Walter Library. In 1968, it moved to the new Wilson Library. More recently, in March 2018, the library was transferred to the Elmer L. Andersen Library building.