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UA Alumnus Bequeaths Asian Art Library to UA Art

Graduate student Rebekah James looks through volumes in the Price Asian Art Book Collection.

The department of art and art history recently unveiled a new scholarly research resource: the  Dr. and Mrs. William T. Price Asian Art Book Collection. catalogued and shelved in new facilities in Garland Hall. Given by UA alumnus Dr. William T. Price, a longtime collector of Asian art, the collection totals over 1,500 volumes, including art books, handmade books, unbound woodblock print books, catalogs and journals.

The department was able to hire an art history graduate student, Rebecca Teague, to complete the cataloging of the collection in 2019, thanks to Dr. Robert Olin, dean of the College of Art & Sciences (now retired).  Teague completed cataloguing the collection and uploaded the database to the online platform, LibraryThing.com, used widely by institutional and private libraries. Teague’s supervisor on the project, Visual Resources Curator Rachel Dobson, said that the collection will be a huge benefit to students. “Since the 1950s, Dr. Price has collected Asian art, books and other items and he has bequeathed us a research treasure in this collection,” Dobson said. “The collection contains a wide range of Asian art books, many not easily available in the US., so our graduate and undergraduate students will have access to interesting and unusual research topics that they might not otherwise be able to study.”

To view the collection or search the “UA-ImageResources” catalog, go to this page. Click on a link in the “Collections” section, or go to the right hand column and select Dr & Mrs. William T Price Asian Art Book Collection.

For more information about the programs in the UA Department of Art and Art History, go to this page or contact the department at (205) 348-5967.