The Fox Collection features approximately 400 books by authors and illustrators such as Aubrey Beardsley, William Blake, Robert Browning, Lewis Carroll, George and Robert Cruikshank, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Grimm Brothers, Washington Irving, Sir Walter Scott, William Thackeray, and Oscar Wilde.  Although the collection is not yet accessible through the library's on-line catalog, a complete listing of titles in the collection is available in Special Collections. A very thorough catalog of the collection, by Professor Catherine Golden, is also available in the circulating collection (call number Z881 .S375 1993) and in Special Collections. 
 

The Fox-Adler Lecture Series

The Fox-Adler Lecture Series is named after the late Hannah M. Adler and donor Norman M. Fox and supports the intellectual mission of the Fox Collection, which is an invaluable asset for Skidmore students and faculty studying Victorian literature, illustration and culture.

The Fox-Adler Lecture Series grew out of Norman's vision for a bequest from Mrs. Adler's estate to initiate a yearly lecture, an occassion to discuss the importance of literature and art in the nineteenth century. Initially named the Adler lecture, in 2001 it was renamed the Fox-Adler lecture to honor Norman Fox as the current owner of the collection.

This annual lecture quickly gained a reputation for featuring prominent scholars, journalists, and bibliophiles. In 1991 Richard Atlick offered the inaugural Adler Lecture entitled, "The First Ten Years of Punch: The Caricature Tradition." Other lectures have included Robert Patten (1993), "In Search of Cruikshank"; Martha Vicinus (1995), "Victorian Male Impersonators: Theatrical Cross-Dressing"; Terry Belanger (1996), "Time and Money: The Search for Speed and the Search for Cheapness in the Production of Nineteenth-Century English and American Illustrated Books"; Jonathan Bate (1997), "The Ecology of the Picturesque"; Elizabeth Helsinger (1998), "Rossetti and the Art of the Book" and David Porter (1998), "'We All Sit on the Edge of Stools and Crack Jokes': The Hogarth Press"; and James Heffernan (1999), "Love, Death, and Grotesquerie: Beardsley's Illustrations of Wilde and Pope." Most recent highlights are, in 2001, John Dixon Hunt's fascinating lecture on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century landscape, and in 2002, Michael Kimmelman's talk on the rise of the museum in the nineteenth century. 2005 featured Jay Williams delivering, "Thomas Nast: America's Icon Maker."

The Fox Collection and Norman M. Fox

In 2005, with his family - Harvey Fox, Cassie Fox (Skidmore '80), and Cindy Fox Aisen - the Fox family gave what is now known as the Fox Collection to the College along with a $100,000 gift to endow the lecture series in perpetuity. Over the years the family has supported a number of important initiatives, including support for a richly illustrated catalogue of the entire Fox collection and several handsome brochures based on exhibitions from the collection. Yearly lectures have featured prominent scholars, journalists, and bibliophiles.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in the Bronx, Norman, along with his wife Eva, moved to Saratoga Springs in 1947 after serving overseas in the US Army. With Charles Adler he founded Spa Records in 1952, winning a 1953 Paris Gold Medal for a recording of Mahler's Third Symphony. David Porter, President Emeritus of Skidmore College and close friend of the Fox family, notes that, "He [Norman] had worked with the great conductor Charles Adler to develop a company, Spa Records, which at the very dawn of the LP era produced a remarkable list of recordings - more than 75 discks -including an astonishing array of composers and performers, many in premiere performances: George Antheil playing his own piano works; Alfred Brendel, one of the century's greatest pianists, performing works by Strauss, Busoni, and Beethoven at the very start of his career; the first recording ever made of Beethoven's piano version of his violin concerto; pioneering recordings of Schoenberg, Cowell, and Ives."†

Remaining committed to the arts, Norman became involved in business and civic planning. Opening the Saratoga Appliance Shop and then N. Fox Jewelers, Norman became an active participant in downtown business for thirty years. In 1961 he became Founding President of the Saratoga Merchants Association, currently known as the Downtown Business Association. He fought construction of the arterial highway that was going to bypass the downtown business district and upon selling his store to his son, Harvey, in 1977, served as Chair of the Special Assessment District for nineteen years. His twelve year service as Vice-Chair of the City Planning Board and as President of the Historical Society were instrumental in the revitilization of Saratoga Springs. For his many contributions to the city, he has received the Kathryn H. Starbuck Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), the Rotary Club Community Service Award (2004), and the Saratoga Springs Preservation Society Award (2005).

In addition to his commitment to the welfare of Saratoga Springs, Norman is a connoisseur of rare books and an avid collector of first day covers.

-Catherine Golden, Professor of English, Skidmore College