Willard Fiske's Chess Collection

The American tycoon Willard Fiske (1831–1904) was very interested in everything related to Iceland. He came to Iceland in 1879 and taught Icelandic as a professor of Nordic studies at Cornell University in Ithaca. He collected all the printed Icelandic material he came across and later bequeathed it to Cornell University. It will be the second largest collection of Icelandic publications abroad. Fiske also collected all available books and magazines on chess, as he was a great chess enthusiast. He was impressed by the interest of the people of Iceland, especially the people of Grímsey, in the sport and decided to donate his chess collection to the National Library of Iceland. There are about 1200 volumes, some of which are very rare. Much of the collection is bound in high-quality binding.