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(March 28, 2008 - April 28th, 2008)
Described as “one of the largest private collections of
books on classics and ancient history in the United States”, The Stewart Irvin
Oost Collection consists of many thousands of books and pamphlets in over
seventeen languages dating from as early as the 16th century. Upon
Oost’s death in 1981, he left his entire collection to SMU which included the
collections of the Greek scholars and professors Benedict Einarson and Paul
Shorey from the University of Chicago. The collection also included documents
Einarson left to Oost containing notes, personal material, correspondence, and
family items.
John Long, who taught with Oost at SMU, described him as “one of those scholar-teachers every institution of higher learning hopes to develop or acquire.”
In addition to the books, Oost’s will stipulated that SMU preserve the Stewart family bible, a bookplate be placed in each Oost Collection book and that the remainder of his estate be designated for maintaining the collection and for purchasing additional books dealing with Greek and Roman history, literature, art, thought and life for the period prior to 565 A.D. Oost’s entire estate at the time of his death was worth in excess of a quarter of a million dollars.
In a letter to Professor James Early at SMU in 1979 discussing his will and SMU’s role in his life, Oost had this to say, “Most important of all, probably, is my affection for SMU, still strong after twenty years. I spent some of the happiest years of my life as a member of its faculty and citizen of Dallas.”
The legacy of Oost and his collection lives on at SMU as
hundreds of books have been added to the collection and are still added each
year (more than 300 books were added to the collection in 2007). While the
collection and its growth offers a wealth of information and history for
students and scholars of the classics, there’s something for everyone to enjoy
and learn about among the thousands of books and the words each book contains.
Stewart Irvin Oost: A Timeline
