William D. and Helen M. Chase Collection
Bill and Helen Chase started collecting books in 1943, the same year they were married. A fascination with history, the written word, and information was always foremost in their minds. They soon began collecting works by Irish playwright, George Bernard Shaw, and what started as a small collection, became one of the most inclusive and unique in private hands, including personal correspondence with the playwright. Over the course of the next fifty years there were several themes of book collecting, including early editions of Hoyles Rules of Games, books about books, and Fore-edge paintings on books. However, the most significant focus of the collection was their ongoing love of almanacs, calendar customs, and items dealing with chronology through the ages. This collection was extensive and included books and individual leaves dating back to the first half-century of printing. Included are titles ranging from Apianus’s Cosmographia (1553), to Holder’s Discourse Concerning Time (1694), Bamfield’s New Treatise of Astronomy (1764), to Bredow’s Compendious View of Universal History (1820), to Moon’s, The Oldest Type-Printed Book In Existence (1901), as well as hundreds of different individual almanacs and a copy of Benjamin Franklin’s famous Poor Richard’s Almanac (1752). Almanac collecting took a very personal twist when, in 1957, Bill along with his brother Harrison, launched an almanac/calendar of their own: Chase’s Calendar of Events. The calendar contained special days, weeks, and months compiled by the Chase brothers, and included the Chamber of Commerce of the United States compilation of trade association events. It wasn’t long before Chase’s became renowned and became the go-to source of events for the world. After sixty years in print, and growth from a small pamphlet to a massive 750-page compilation, it has become a standard reference of valuable information for libraries, nursing homes, magazines, radio stations, newspapers, late-night talk show hosts, and all those interested in the year’s calendar. The project that Bill and Helen undertook to gratify their own fascination with their antiquarian book collections found a new home at Michigan State University in 2016 where it is accessible to all.