Albert R. Mann Library’s Rice Poultry Collection is a major repository of information on poultry science, both current and historical. Over 800 of the oldest volumes are housed in Mann Library’s Special Collections. These include such gems as a 1572 French discourse that, translated, became the first book published in English on poultry husbandry, and an eighteenth century treatise on artificial incubation by the brilliant René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur.

The collection is named for James Edward Rice, the first professor of poultry husbandry in the United States. Professor Rice was head of Cornell University’s poultry program, and co-founder of the Poultry Science Association. With his sons, Professor Rice ran the 600-acre Egg and Apple Farm just outside of Trumansburg.