The Jane Austen Collection at Goucher was founded with the bequest of Alberta Hirshheimer Burke (1906–1975), a 1928 alumna of the college. Shortly after marrying Henry G. Burke in 1930, Alberta began what would become a lifetime passion project of building what she called her “Austen archive.”
Among the highlights of the collection are:
In a set of 10 notebooks, Alberta Burke preserved ephemera relating to Austen spanning almost five decades, including newspaper articles, cartoons, theater playbills, film stills, radio scripts, and more. On her travels, she sought out translations of Austen’s novels, creating the only known historical collection of Austen translations in the world. In 1989, Henry Burke bequeathed further books and correspondence related to his wife’s collecting. Subsequent bequests and donations from a variety of American Austen devotees have further enriched the collection.
All old books have stories to tell of their owners and readers. Some clues—such as signatures, bookplates, and markings of previous owners—are present in the volumes themselves. Other parts of the story of a book’s provenance emerge from letters, auction catalogues, and sales records.
Goucher’s copy of the Philadelphia Emma was given to the college by the dedicated, knowledgeable Austen collector Alberta Burke (1906-1975), a 1928 alumna of the college. The Philadelphia Emma, which Alberta purchased in 1945, is the gem of her world-class Austen collection.