Bibliography of Fly Fishing - Notable Fly-fishing Library Collections

Notable Fly-fishing Library Collections

• The Western Washington University Fly Fishing Collection, Bellingham, Washington

The Purpose of the Fly Fishing Collection at Western Washington University Libraries Special Collections is to collect, preserve, and provide access to diverse materials supporting study of the sport of fly fishing. The collection includes books, periodicals, manuscripts, photographs, artworks, audio and video personal interviews and histories, and fly fishing artifacts such as rods, reels, flies, and fly tying materials.

A sub-collection within the larger fly fishing collection at Western Washington University is the Paul and Mary Ann Ford Fly Fishing Collection which includes

American works about fly fishing in America that are of fine quality in both physical presentation and content. The collection's current emphasis is on the spiritual, sociological, and aesthetic aspects of fly fishing. In addition to books, the collection includes magazines, paintings, prints, sculpture, and needlework. The Fords began transferring the collection to Western Libraries Special Collections in late 2003. It will be transferred in stages and will include newly published works of distinction selected by the Fords.

• Kienbusch Angling Collection, Princeton University Library, Princeton, New Jersey

The Kienbusch Collection at Princeton University contains some the of the most extraordinary gems in the history of angling literature. There are about 1500 books and manuscripts in all, representing the collective wisdom of five centuries of angling writers, from Berners to Bergman and beyond ....

• The Kenneth H. Rockey Angling Collection, Princeton University Library
• The LaFontaine Angling Collection, University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center, Rare Book Collection, Laramie, Wyoming. Library website
• Frederick and Clara Toppan Angling Book Collection, University of Wyoming’s American Heritage Center, Rare Book Collection. Library website
• American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont, The museum's library ranks as one of the largest public collections of fly-fishing books in America. Museum website
• The Reed Draper Collection of Angling Books, Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan
• Harry Hawthorn Foundation Collection, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia

The Library of the University of British Columbia has an excellent collection of books on angling and fly-fishing, known as the Harry Hawthorn Collection. At present it totals more than 1800 books, including many rare and valuable items. This Collection came about as the result of a fishing holiday in 1953 by eight UBC professors and Roderick Haig-Brown at Upper Campbell Lake.

• Milne Angling Collection, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, New Hampshire

The Milne Angling Collection includes a large number of volumes that represent the very beginnings of angling literature. Dame Juliana Berners' A Treatyse of Fysshynge wyth an Angle (1496) is considered the first book on the subject printed in England. Although some question her authorship, Berners, who was prioress of the Benedictine abbey of Sopwell, occupies a similar place in angling literature to that accorded Chaucer in English literature. The Milne Collection contains several editions of Berners' work dating from the 1827 William Pickering edition to modern versions, such as the one published in John McDonald's Quill Gordon (1972).

• George Harvey Fly-Fishing Literature Collection, Penn State University Life Sciences Library, State College, Pennsylvania
• Trout and Salmonoid Collections, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana

Since our beginnings in the late Nineteenth Century, the MSU Libraries has strived to develop a world–class research collection in support of the academic goals of our university, including those of local interest with national and international resonance. Sixty years of research on fish and fisheries has given MSU a strong tradition on which to build the nation's preeminent trout and salmonoid collection. Not only does the collection support this world–class research, but it is a focal point of local and regional pride for those who care about the salmonoid species’ well being and about the waters that flow through this region. Housed in the MSU Libraries’ Merrill G. Burlingame Special Collections, this collection is open to the public for use on the premises in a controlled archival environment.

• • Contains the following notable collections:
    • Strung, Norman (Literary manuscripts and correspondence, 1966–1982)
    • Pellicane, Alfred T. (Papers, 1962–2000)
    • Mitchell, Harry B. (Papers, 1953–1965)
    • Agassiz, Louis (Letters, 1854–1858)
    • Salmon Poisoning Research Collection (Papers, 1923–1999)
    • Nick Lyons Ephemera Collection (Corporate records and personal papers, 1932–2005)
    • Behnke, Robert J. (Papers, 1957–2000)