NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 21 number 3 - Spring 2001

By Bernie McTigue, Special Collections

The Special Collections Department of the NCSU Libraries has acquired the personal papers of Tom Regan, professor of philosophy and religion at NC State. The Thomas H. Regan Collection, which runs to more than seventy-five linear feet, documents the career of an individual whose work provides much of the philosophical and ethical underpinnings for the contemporary animal rights movement in the United States. The collection consists of notes, letters, manuscripts and typescripts, books, pamphlets, and audiovisual materials that offer insight and context for the development of the ideas of a scholar who has been involved in this field for more than twenty years.

While less well known to the general public than Peter Singer, whose Animal Liberation (1975) has received wide circulation, Regan's The Case for Animal Rights (1983) is regarded by many scholars and commentators as the seminal work in the field. He argues that animals have moral rights of the sort enjoyed by humans, especially the right to life. In his view, support for the rights of animals is no different than support for human rights. The development of these views and their presentation in scholarly and activist forums has brought Regan to the forefront as the "philosophical father" of the animal rights movement and a major figure in the rise of a socially and economically significant phenomenon. As the collection's appraiser noted in his comments on the intellectual and research value of these materials, "This collection is the foundation for this field of study [animal rights], because the one who has assembled it is the intellectual genius who articulated philosophically the basis of the movement."

In recognition of the collection's significance, an anonymous donor has awarded the NCSU Libraries a substantial grant to facilitate processing of the collection. It will also provide funds for an exhibition and symposium.

The NCSU Libraries, to augment its collections documenting the national development of the animal rights movement, is exploring ways to enhance its holdings in this area by acquiring personal and organizational records that limn this contemporary movement. These collections, when acquired, will become part of the Tom Regan Animal Rights Collections, named to honor Regan's leadership in this field.