The Patricia -Ann Lee History and American Studies Lab
Tisch Learning Center 325
The Patricia-Ann Lee History Lab began when Bradley Bernstein (class of '92) made a gift to the department and expressed his wish that it should be used in a way that would benefit both our students and our faculty. From that beginning came a departmental research library housed in a small facility on the 3d floor of Tisch Learning Center (shared by the American Studies Department). The lab, as presently constituted, concentrates on materials showing the connections between England and America through the period of the Early Republic. However, gifts to the department have made and will make it possible to expand this area of interest. At the present time, it contains among other primary materials, The Parliamentary History, in 5 series (1803-1918) on micro card, and the Evans Collection which reproduces everything extant (except newspapers) imprinted in America from 1639-1800. One of the most important holdings is the Thomason Tracts (microfilm), a rare collection of pamphlets from the period of the English Civil War in mid 17th Century, which allows students to study the political ideas which were to influence deeply the British-American colonists in the century of independence. The lab is used both for class assignments and for independent research by students in the History department and in other departments of the college.