Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Robert Ernest Cowan Library and Bibliographical Lists
- Dates:
- ca. 1935
- Creators:
- Cowan, Robert Ernest, 1862-1942
- Abstract:
- Robert Ernest Cowan (1862-1942) was a San Francisco bookseller (1895-1920) and author of bibliographies of history of California and the Pacific Coast. He was also the librarian for William Andrews Clark, Jr. (1919-33). Cowan's collection of books and manuscripts form the nucleus of the UCLA Department of Special Collections's holdings in Californiana. The collection consists of library and bibliographical lists of the Robert E. Cowan Library made by Mr. Cowan and members of the UCLA Library staff.
- Extent:
- 4 linear feet (8 boxes)
- Language:
- English
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Robert Ernest Cowan Library and Bibliographical Lists (Collection 2046). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Collection consists of library and bibliographical lists of the Robert E. Cowan Library made by Mr. Cowan and members of the UCLA Library staff. Includes a manuscript catalog made in Cowan's hand in 1935, a list of 3534 items in the Cowan Library with a bibliography, manuscript catalogs with Cowan's valuations, UCLA catalog cards with full entries on 3 × 5" slips, and a manuscript volume of a list of Cowan's books, chiefly Californiana. Cowan's Library formed the nucleus of UCLA's Californiana holdings.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Robert Ernest Cowan was born in 1862 in Toronto, Canada; came to San Francisco in 1870; student at UC Berkeley 1882-84; San Francisco bookseller from 1895-1920 and author of bibliographies of history of California and the Pacific Coast; librarian for William Andrews Clark, Jr., 1919-33; moved to Los Angeles at Clark's request in 1926; Cowan's collection of books and manuscripts form the nucleus of the UCLA Department of Special Collections's holdings in Californiana; married Marie Margaret Fleissner in 1894; only child was Robert Granniss Cowan; died in 1942.
- Processing information:
-
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's Library Collections and Archives.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Encoded:
- This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2026-09-22 15:02:12 -0700 .
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Boxes 5-7 are unprocessed and the material is unavailable for access. Please see LSC's Access to Unprocessed Collections Policy for more information about levels of discovery and access of special collections materials and to register interest in unprocessed collections.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Robert Ernest Cowan Library and Bibliographical Lists (Collection 2046). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988