Daniel Poor Memorial Library often abbreviated as DPM Library is a century old college central library of the

American College, Madurai The American College, often referred to as American College, is one of the oldest colleges in India, located in Madurai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded in 1881 by American Christian missionaries. The red-brick buildings, in the Saracenic style, ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

that officially began its functions on June 28, 1915.

History

Samuel A Morman, the granddaughter of Dr.

Daniel Poor Daniel Poor (27 June 1789, Danvers, Massachusetts, United States - 3 February 1855, Manipai, Jaffna) was a Presbyterian missionary and educator, founder of the first English School in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Poor graduated at Phillips Academy, Andover ...

, was the key person to build the library building by donating $25,000 to the American Board of Missionaries on January 26, 1926. Between 1914 and 1920, J. A. Sanders was the first

librarian A librarian is a person who works professionally in a library providing access to information, and sometimes social or technical programming, or instruction on information literacy to users. The role of the librarian has changed much over time, ...

. The stack room at the library houses more than 76,000 volumes.

Collections

Tamil palm-leaf manuscript of Ciṟupañcamūlam 2

The library holds archaeological artifacts and ancient coins of Pandyan Dynasty,

Cholas The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...

as well. Many ancient palm leaf script copies like

Tiruvacakam ''Thiruvasagam'' ( ta, திருவாசகம், tiruvācakam, translit-std=IAST, lit=sacred utterance) is a volume of Tamil hymns composed by the ninth century Shaivite ''bhakti'' poet Manikkavasagar. It contains 51 compositions and const ...

Manimekalai ''Maṇimēkalai'' ( ta, மணிமேகலை, ), also spelled ''Manimekhalai'' or ''Manimekalai'', is a Tamil-Buddhist epic composed by Kulavāṇikaṉ Seethalai Sataṉar probably around the 6th century. It is an "anti-love story", a s ...

are also archived. Correspondence between the Indian Government and The American Missionaries, wood carvings from Nayak period, five metal bronze statues of Vishnu and other Hindu gods, Indonesian wood carvings and wooden statues are in the collections.

References

{{Authority control Libraries in Tamil Nadu American Ceylon Mission Libraries established in 1915