For the José Durand Collection of Latin American Literary Works in Spanish, Italian, and Latin

The Thomas H. and Dorthy S. Corson Program was established in 1982 by Thomas and Dorthy Corson. Tom is chairman emeritus of Coachmen Industries Inc., of Elkhart, Indiana, and was a longstanding member of the Notre Dame Law School Advisory Council. Dorthy, a registered nurse, served as a director of Coachmen Industries for 29 years.

Through the generosity of the Corsons, the Hesburgh Libraries acquired a major research collection focusing on colonial Latin American history and intellectual history. While private libraries of this nature come on the market with some regularity, few have the quality or the significance of this collection, which was assembled over a period of 40 years by the late José Durand, professor of Spanish at the University of California, Berkeley. While the acquisition of this library in itself constitutes a great step forward in collection building at the University, the Durand Library has the added appeal of supporting a wide range of disciplines targeted for expansion at Notre Dame and fills critical gaps in existing library collections in the humanities.