The East Asian Library of Princeton University has been built around the original Gest Oriental Library Collection.

The "Gest" of this "Gest Oriental Library" (note its exceptional pronunciation: "Guest" instead of "Jest") refers to the American Guion Moore Gest (1864-1948), the founder of the Gest Engineering Company, which in the 1910s and '20s did much business in both the Americas and Asia. As part of his work Gest made frequent visits to Peking, where he met the then Naval Attaché, Commander I.V. Gillis (1875-1948), who would later become the adviser to and purchasing agent for the Gest Library. Gest and Gillis, together with Nancy Lee Swann (1881-1966), would form during the 1930s and '40s the three people most responsible for what is now the world famous Gest Rare Book Collection. The name Gest Oriental Library officially only refers to the original collection brought together by these three people, although often the name is used also for all the East Asian collections developed later at Princeton University.

Even from before the turn of the century Gest had developed an interest in Asia, especially Buddhism. However, his interest in Chinese books started from medicine. Gest had long suffered from glaucoma, and had sought the assistance of many leading American and European opthalmologists, to no avail. Once when in Peking Gillis, who knew China and Chinese well, suggested he try an eye medicine of the Ma Yinglong family of Dingzhou, which had a shop in Peking solely devoted to selling this famous item. Gest did so, and while it did not really cure him, it gave him some temporary relief. In response Gest left an amount of money to Gillis to buy Chinese works on the treatment of eye diseases, and medical books in general. It was this collection which formed the beginning of the Gest Library.

Owing to the larger interests of Gillis the scope of the collection expanded into including many other kinds of books, so that the Gestn collection is rich in many fields beyond medicine, including classics, wenji, congshu and also an unusual number of books on scientific subjects, such as mathematics and astronomy. Gillis, who was married to a Manchu princess, had access to many high-class Chinese and Manchu families in the 1920s and was therefore well placed to collect many interesting works from them. The core of the original collection was purchased from Chen Baochen, tutor to the Xuantong emperor. Other famous Chinese families he bought works from include those of Zhang Zhidong, Li Hongzhang, Cai Yuanpei and Yuan Tongli. In fact, Gillis' success in collecting actually impoverished Gest, who had not been very rich to begin with; and since, moreover, Gest had no space to store the works, it was arranged that the collection became an official "Library" in 1926, as part of the McGill University in Montréal, Canada. McGill was willing to establish a Chinese Department alongside the collection, of a more practical nature than Gest thought would be possible at the American Ivy League schools. At that time the collection counted 232 titles, and 8,000 ce. Soon Nancy Lee Swann, perhaps the first female scholar of Chinese studies in the West (her study on Ban Zhao is still widely used) became its curator until 1948, to be replaced by Hu Shi in 1950.

The 1929 economic crash was disastrous for many; Gest lost most of his money, Swann was paid no salary for two years, Gillis received no money even for books already approved. And McGill University could not afford even the few expenses it had connected with the Library. However, since Swann continued to work unpaid and Gillis used his own money buying new rare books, the collection continued to grow. It also took much time and numerous bureaucratic hurdles before the books bought in Peking could be shipped to outside China, and it required the help of Zhang Xueliang's office to finally ship the last 27,000 ce out of China. Because of all the financial troubles, Gest tried to move the library to a more hospitable university, but most universities in Canada and the US declined to take over the collection. Some help was forthcoming from the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, for which Gest had previously organized a project to learn about the use of acupuncture to stimulate the nervous system. With this help, in 1936-7 finally the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton acquired the collection, then having grown to some 100,000 ce, with the understanding that it was to be administered as part of the Princeton University Library. However it must be said that only after Princeton inaugurated an East Asian department in the late 1950s around the Gest Library it became an integrated part of the University as a whole, and received monies to keep up with current publishing. This came to include since the 1950s Japanese, and to a smaller extent, Korean books, including small numbers of rare items. Much of the expansion took place under James Tung (Tong Shigang), who had been hired by Hu Shi and later took over the latter's curatorship.

Gillis realized that he could not compete with Asian collectors in acquiring Song and Yuan editions of rare books, and therefore he concentrated upon works from the Ming dynasty (1368-1644); Princeton University has been a center of Ming books and scholarship ever since. This is also true for its books on Chinese medicine: many of its Ming, and even some of its Qing works are rare or even unique.

The original Gest Collection has been collectively cataloged in three different publications. First, for most Ming works, there is the Qu Wanli catalog Pulinsidun daxue

 Geside Dongfang Tushuguan Zhongwen shanben shuzhi, originally published in 1974, and now available as vol. 13 of the Qu Wanli quanji published by Lianjing. It was compiled in 1965-1966 on the basis of an unpublished draft of Wang Zhongmin. Most Qing works are listed in the 1990 Pulinsidun daxue Geside Dongfang Tushuguan Zhongwen jiuji shumu compiled by Chang Bide and Wu Zhefu. In addition, there is the International Union Catalogue of Chinese Rare Books, which under leadership of Sören Edgren, began as a special project of the Research Libraries Group, a consortium of many of the most important North American research libraries. Its head office is currently an independent organization under the auspices of the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, and physically located within the East Asian Library and is now continued. This electronic catalog gives superior access to detailed records of the pre-1796 Chinese rare book holdings of most North American and several important Mainland Chinese and European libraries. The records follow detailed uniform guidelines which were created after multiple discussions by specialists from the United States and abroad, including Taiwan and China.

Gest's intent was to establish a collection that could be used by North American scholars of sinology and Chinese alike as a means to further understanding between East and West, a desire the East Asian Library continues to advance today. Its rare book collection is one of the outstanding ones in the world; and now, in its location adjacent to the Department of East Asian Studies where it has been housed since 1972, the East Asian Library continues to grow to meet scholars' needs as part of the Princeton University Library system.

The Harvey S. Firestone Memorial Library opened in 1948 as the first large American university library constructed after World War II.  Roughly 1.5 million volumes were moved during the summer of 1948 from Pyne and Chancellor Green Halls, which until then had served as the University's main library. The library building was expanded in 1971 and again in 1988 and currently has more than 70 miles (110 km) of bookshelves, making Firestone one of the largest open-stack libraries in existence. Though not the largest university library in the world, the library has more books per enrolled student than that of any other university in the United States.

The Lewis Science Library was made possible through a generous gift by Peter B. Lewis, Princeton Class of 1955 and University trustee, and was designed by internationally acclaimed architect Frank Gehry. This bold facility, in the heart of Princeton University’s “science neighborhood,” provides soaring, colorful spaces where researchers can interact and share ideas.  (For more, see Architect Gehry seeks to inspire with Princeton’s Lewis Library design)

A renovation was completed in 2020, which brought the Engineering Library to the Fine Hall Wing of the Library (A-Floor), the creation of a new PUL Makerspace (A-Floor), the renovation of the Maps & Geospatial Information Center (A-Floor), and updated study and collections spaces on the A-Floor and B-Floor. 

In 1997 the music collections of Princeton University were brought together for the first time with the opening of the Scheide Music Library in the Woolworth Center for Musical Studies. At the request of the funder, William Scheide, the music library was renamed to honor former Princeton faculty member and Scheide’s teacher Arthur Mendel (1905–1979) for his outstanding contributions as Bach scholar, performer, editor, critic, and teacher to the discipline of music. Books, printed music, sound & video recordings, periodicals, and microform are housed on the three floors of the library. Also included are audio-visual facilities, computer work stations, equipment for viewing and scanning microform, scanning equipment, photocopy equipment, a periodicals reading room, seminar room, and student study carrels. The library also subscribes to a wide variety of electronic resources that include databases, electronic books and journals, streaming audio and video services, and primary resources. The Mendel Music Library collections include over 85,000 monographs, 60,000 scores, 83,000 sound recordings (49,000+ are CDs), 5,100 video recordings, 18,000 microfilm titles, and 1000 periodical titles.

In total, the Mendel Music Library collections support the complex and varied research and performance needs of Princeton’s preeminent music faculty, some fifty graduate students in musicology, music theory, and composition, undergraduate music majors and non-majors participating in the various performance ensembles, and Princeton students, faculty, and staff from all subject areas who include music as part of their interdisciplinary study or personal interest. Since we are open to the public, our collections are also widely used by researchers from all over the Northeast and beyond. The Mendel Music Library also houses collections supporting the dance program and music theater.

The Department of Special Collections at Firestone Library complements the Mendel Music Library by holding the rarest parts of Princeton’s music collection. Foremost among these resources is the Hall Handel Collection, an extensive compilation of manuscripts as well as first and early editions of the works of George Frideric Handel, which is the largest collection of its kind in the United States. There is also a continually growing collection of early music imprints from the 16th-18th centuries augmented by occasional special purchases of music manuscripts—all of which are starting to appear online in digital form as Music Treasures at Princeton. Also in Special Collections, visitors will find William Scheide's private library. Although it is not primarily a music collection, this library includes some extraordinary musical treasures, such as the fair copy of Wagner's Das Rheingold, a Beethoven sketchbook, and autograph manuscripts of works by Mozart and Bach.

Donald E. Stokes

Stokes Library is named for Donald E. Stokes ’51 (1827-1997), the Dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs for 18 years. Stokes, one of the giants of 20th century social science, was a distinctive, colorful presence on campus and in state and local politics.

A specialist in public opinion research, Stokes worked with Oxford colleague David Butler in the early 1960s on the first-ever nationwide study of the British electorate. The books he co-authored, Political Change in Britain, The American Voter and Elections and the Political Order, became required reading for students of politics on both sides of the Atlantic.

“Reading one of his books or papers, one knew one was in the presence of a master,” British political scientist Anthony King recalled in The Guardian, following Stokes’ death from leukemia at the age of 69. “Gracious and invariably well-dressed, Stokes, had he been British, would have been a grandee, and he took great pride in being a ‘Princeton man.’”

Appointed Princeton School of Public and International Affairs School dean in 1974, Stokes led the school, one of the foremost centers of public and international affairs, through one of its most vibrant eras of expansion. Under his tenure, the faculty doubled, and the size of the graduate program, the number of interdisciplinary courses and participation by the world’s public affairs leaders were greatly increased.

Throughout such fast-paced change, his colleagues say, Stokes maintained his magnanimity, enthusiasm, wisdom, kindness, unquenchable optimism and affection. “In all the years I knew Don, I don’t think I ever saw him lose his temper or heard him say a harsh word against anyone,” says Northwestern University Law Professor Leigh Bienen, whom Stokes hired as undergraduate dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. “He was warm, caring, and such a wonderful, broad and principled thinker. He was strong on affirmative action and women, and he could appreciate a wide variety of approaches to academic work, which is all too rare.”

In addition, Stokes was fun. Like others, Princeton Professor and Director of the Office of Population Research T. James Trussell '75 recalled Stokes’ baroque, distinct and often hilarious use of language. “A tangible benefit of knowing Don was a considerable expansion of my vocabulary,” says Trussell. “Who can ever forget words such as moiety, Ptolemaic, psephological, Copernican, and especially, spatchcocked, all rendered in pear-shaped tones during perfectly ordinary, everyday, often one-to-one conversation?"

"Don taught me an extraordinary number of things,” Trussell says. “The intricacies of the love life of Edward VII, whose mistress’s daughter’s flat we shared during a wonderful year of leave in London, and the value of patiently waiting as some crisis unfolds when my natural impulse is to do something.”

“Don was a gentle person,” says Northwestern University President Henry S. Bienen, who not only followed Stokes as dean of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, but also once traveled with him by horse and camel to the pyramids in Egypt. “Don usually got his way; he was persistent. But he also had a great capacity to laugh at himself and to have fun. He was a serious person who wanted to do well in the world, and he did.”

Anthony King recalled the sweetness of Stokes’ relationship with his wife, Sybil. They held hands in public,” King wrote. “When someone described him to Sybil as ‘the man with the golden voice,’ she replied, ‘That must make me the woman with the golden ear.’”

Adapted an reprinted with permission from Princeton: With One Accord, Spring 1999, by Kathryn Watterson published by Princeton University's Office of Development Communications.

Ansley Coale

On June 25, 2002, the University honored Ansley Johnson Coale (1917-2002), the William Church Osborne Professor of Public Affairs and Professor of Economics emeritus, by naming its demographic research library collection "The Ansley J. Coale Population Research Collection." The Collection is housed in Stokes Library.

Ansley Coale was educated entirely at Princeton University (B.A., M.A. and Ph.D.) and spent his whole academic career at its Office of Population Research, serving as its director from 1959 to 1975. He served as president of the Population Association of American in 1967-1968 and as president of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population from 1977 to 1981. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and was a recipient of several honorary degrees from universities including Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Louvain and the University of Liege. He was also a corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. A prolific writer, he published more than 125 books and articles on a wide variety of demographic topics. He also trained and served as mentor to many students who became leaders in the field.

His first major influential work was Population Growth and Economic Development in Low-Income Countries (1958), coauthored with Edgar Hoover. The results, which showed that slowing population growth could enhance economic development, had a major impact on public policy and set the research agenda in this field. This was followed by Regional Model Life Tables and Stable Populations (1966), coauthored with Paul Demeny. These model life tables both established new empirical regularities and proved invaluable in the development of later techniques for estimating mortality and fertility in populations with inaccurate or incomplete data. Along with William Brass, Coale pioneered the development and use of these techniques, first explicated in Methods of Estimating Basic Demographic Measures from Incomplete Data (1967, with Demeny) and in The Demography of Tropical Africa (1968, with other demographers). Coale was an able mathematician (he taught radar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during World War II), and his Age and Structure of Human Populations (1972) is an essential textbook for those interested in formal demography.

Perhaps Coale’s major scientific contribution was to our understanding of the demographic transition. He was the intellectual architect of the European Fertility Project, which examined the remarkable decline in marital fertility in Europe. Initiated in 1963, the project eventually resulted in the publication of nine major books (culminating in The Decline of Fertility in Europe, 1986, edited by Coale and Susan Watkins) summarizing the changes in childbearing over a century in the seven hundred provinces in Europe. Toward the end of his career, Coale became interested in the population changes in China and understanding the fertility transition there as well as factors affecting the sex ratio at birth.

 Ansley Coale passed  away on November 5, 2002 at Pennswood Retirement community in Bucks County, PA.