Princeton University is bequeathed $300 million rare book library, largest donation in school's history

By Keith Brown. A Princeton University alum has bequeathed to the school his collection of 2,500 rare books worth an estimated worth of $300 million - the largest single donation in the school's history, officials said.
William H. Scheide, a 1936 graduate, died in November. He was 100 years old. The Scheide Library, housed in the university's Firestone Library and available to students since 1959, contains the 1455 Gutenberg Bible, the original printing of the Declaration of Independence, Shakespeare's first, second, third and fourth folios and an 1856 autographed speech by Abraham Lincoln, among others, according to a university release. More...