Begun in seventeenth-century America, the Izard Library, a collection of 394 surviving titles and 867 volumes, is one of the few privately owned, colonial libraries of its size in existence.  Added to and passed down through ten generations, the library was donated to the College of Charleston on May 14, 1974, by Sarah Izard Smith, Rita Izard Hunter, and Laura Izard Harris, the great-great-grandaughters of South Carolina's first United States Senator Ralph Izard and his wife Alice Delancey Izard.  The books remain in relatively good condition, though for over 200 years they endured a volitile southern climate which often wreaks havoc with such materials of which books are made.

As no inventory has ever been found, the completeness of the collection may never be known.  Over half the multi-volume sets are incomplete.  It is possible that these books were destroyed over the years, or simply never purchased.  It is also likely that various members of the Izard family borrowed and kept particular volumes which appealed to them.  Several volumes were donated by relatives of the three original donators after the collection was given to the College.

The collection is quite diverse.  Classical literature is well-represented with complete works of Ovid, Homer, Aristophanes, Plutarch and others.  There are also examples of the popular eighteenth-century novels, Tristram Shandy, Peregrine Pickle, Clarissa, etc.  Literature of the time from England as well as the Continent can be found throughout the collection.  There is also some travel literature, a popular eighteenth and nineteenth century diversion, as well as some religious texts.

The Izard Family was very active in public affairs and nearly ten percent of their library was devoted to political and legal works.  The collection contains twenty-four volumes chronicling the proceedings, debates, and history of the House of Commons, as well as John Adams's A Defence of the Constitution of the United States of America and Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations.

Since no record of the family's book purchasing has been found, we can only speculate as to how the Izards acquired their books.  The majority of the collection consists of European imprints (over three-fourths), and these books could have found their way to South Carolina in several ways.  Some of the volumes may have been brought across the Atlantic when Ralph Izard immigrated in 1682.  Perhaps the most significant fact about the Izard Library is that it, unlike other privately-owned collections, was not a library built by one collector; it is the result of the efforts of a number of individuals with diverse interests over a span of many decades and generations.

Called the "first and greatest classic of modern economic thought" the Izard Library contains the second edition of Smith's Wealth of Nations.  This is the rarest of the early editions; only 500 copies were printed.  The number of copies of the first edition is unknown.
 
 
 
 
 

This copy of The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle by Tobias Smollett is typical of the several pieces of period literature to be found in the Izard Library.