Close-up of Nova Zembla, 1679, part of the James Ford Bell Library Historical Map Collection (used by permission)
The Library houses James Ford Bell’s collection of approximately 600 books related to discovery and exploration in the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries, which was presented to the University in 1953 to establish a center for study, research, public outreach, and further acquisition. Since then, the collection has grown to some 30,000 items that reflect international trade and cross-cultural interaction from the ancient world to ca. 1800.
"… A word about my satisfaction in turning my collection over to the University of Minnesota. It is my hope that these books may make a contribution to the task of fulfilling the nature of man which every educational institution is designed to perform."
– James Ford Bell
James Ford Bell
James Ford Bell, a leading figure in the American flour milling industry and founder of General Mills, Inc., was born in Philadelphia, PA, in 1879. He moved to Minneapolis, MN as a boy of nine, when his father, James Stroud Bell, became general manager of the Washburn Crosby Company. James Ford Bell received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1901. Following his graduation, he joined the Washburn Crosby Company, where he demonstrated outstanding gifts in research and management; his responsibilities in the company grew rapidly.
During World War I, he was appointed chairman of the Milling Division of the U.S. Food Administration and in this capacity he accompanied President Herbert Hoover on his European Hunger Relief Mission in 1918.
For this, Bell was awarded the Belgian Order of the Crown and was made a member of the French Legion of Honor. James Ford Bell became president of the Washburn Crosby Company in 1925; three years later he was responsible for the founding of General Mills, a consolidation of many western and midwestern milling companies. He became chairman of the board of directors of the company in 1932, an office he held until his retirement in 1947. Throughout his life, he was active in national and international affairs and in the growth of his community.
"What I have collected has been carefully chosen and is, I think, of a quality and an extent to form at least the nucleus of a library which…may help to make the generations of students that will pass through the University of Minnesota good trustees for posterity of the boldness, confidence, vision, and wisdom which these books contain as gifts from the past."
– James Ford Bell, "Bound Fragments of Time"