Highlights of the Collection | Information for Researchers | Guidelines The Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room opened in December 1981. John S. and Louise Runnells provided the funding for this facility, which was named in honor of his mother, also a generous supporter of the Field Museum Library. Through Mary W. Runnells' donation, the Library acquired its double elephant folio edition of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America. The collections of the Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room include 7,500 book volumes and 3,000 original works of art. The core of the book collections held in the Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room consists of several specialized subject collections formed by individuals in areas including ornithology, mineralogy, gemology, natural history, travel and exploration and the anthropology and culture of China. The art collection includes works related to scientific illustration, anthropology and natural history. The collections of the Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room represents a century of acquisitions from a wide variety of sources, including a number of personal collections of past Museum researchers as well as routine acquisitions by the Library.