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LIBRARY RESOURCE - Rosanne Klass Collection on Afghanistan, SAIS, Johns Hopkins Univ.Special Collections and ArchivesMilton S. Eisenhower Library3400 North Charles StreetBaltimore, MD 21218The Roseanne Klass Collection on Afghanistanand the Soviet-Afghan WarKlass Materials - Johns Hopkins University: http://ead.library.jhu.edu/ms.470-finding-aid.pdfPosted by: Central Asia-Caucasus Institute &#60;caci2jhuadig.admin.jhu.edu&#62;Posted: 2 May 2005The Rosanne Klass Collection on Afghanistan and the Soviet-Afghan WarThe Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University gratefully acknowledges a gift from Ms. Rosanne Klass of New York of her archives and collection on Afghanistan and the Soviet-Afghan War. Ms. Klass, an internationally-recognized expert in the field, founded and headed (1980 - 1991) the Afghanistan Information Center at Freedom House.In addition to books and journals, her massive archive contains ephemera of all kinds, published and unpublished, in many languages and from many sources: manuscripts, notes, reports, posters, video cassettes, press clippings, records of two major NGOs, and rare and even unique documents. Internationally, it is one of the largest such collections in private hands. This is an extraordinary gift to the scholars of SAIS, and is particularly relevant to the work of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, SAIS' internationally renowned center for the study of the Greater Central Asian region of which Afghanistan is the heart.Rosanne Klass lived and taught in Afghanistan, and has been following events there for more than four decades and has written widely about them. In 1978 she predicted the Soviet invasion. She is the author and editor of two books on Afghanistan; Afghanistan -- The Great Game Revisited is the standard one-volume reference on the war. She has also written for many publications, including Foreign Affairs, the New York Times, Asia, and Les Nouvelles d'Afghanistan, and has lectured widely in the U.S. and Europe. In 1980, she joined Freedom House and established the Afghanistan Information Center; it became the chief non-governmental source of information on the war for journalists, the media, and the public, and an independent resource consulted by members of the Senate and House and offices of the Pentagon, the White House and the State Department, and the UN, several European and Asian governments, and many Afghan Resistance organizations and leaders. A founder of the Afghanistan Relief Committee in 1979/80, she served as its vice president for programs (1980-1996). Her personal and professional history and networks of connections uniquely positioned her to collect information of all kinds and develop the collection that is coming to SAIS.Dr. Frederick Starr, Chairman of the Central Asia-Causasus Institute joins Dean Einhorn in expressing his appreciation for the gift of the Klass Collection to SAIS and Johns Hopkins. "The immense inherent value of this collection is further enhanced by the luster of Rosanne Klass' own discerning and insightful writing on Afghanistan."Ms. Klass will be a visiting research associate with SAIS, Johns Hopkins University during academic year 2005-2006.The School and the University are grateful to Judith Hernstadt (also of New York) for introducing Ms. Klass to SAIS and for helping to generate private funding to sustain the collection.  Ms. Hernstadt has made a leadership commitment to publicize, transport and maintain the collection at Johns Hopkins.The Klass collection will be maintained by the university's Milton S. Eisenhower Library located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore. The collection will be accessible to scholars throughout Johns Hopkins as well as to scholars from other institutions for use in the special collections department at the Eisenhower library. Inquiries about accessing the collection may be directed to Ms. Margaret Burri, (410) 516-8348. mnburrijhu.edu.The Milton S. Eisenhower library and its collections at the Hutzler Reading Room, the Garrett Library and the George Peabody Library comprise the Sheridan Libraries of the Johns Hopkins University.SAIS is one of the country's leading graduate schools devoted to the study of international relations.  Located along Embassy Row in Washington's Dupont Circle area, the school enrolls more than 500 full-time graduate students and mid-career professionals and has trained more than 11,000 alumni in all aspects of international affairs.