About Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections

Our Values

We value the opportunities to share unique materials that allow the individual and collective voices of the past to be re-expressed and rediscovered in the present. We want all audiences to have an opportunity to explore the participatory culture that shapes our collections.

Our History

MSU Libraries Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Collections was formally established in 1962 with the charge to house special materials, as well as to build, preserve, and make accessible important research collections for educational use.

Today, the Murray and Hong Special Collections holds over 450,000 printed works, numerous manuscript and archival collections, and an extensive collection of ephemera. Some of our notable collections include the Africana Collection, Comic Art Collection, Cookery and Food Collection, European History and Culture Collection, José F. Treviño Chicanx/Latinx Activism Collection, LGBTQ+ Collection, Radicalism Collection, Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection, and Veterinary Medicine Collection. The Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection is one of the largest collections of its kind in the world while the Radicalism Collection features extensive holdings on a wide range of political, social, and economic viewpoints. All of the materials may be seen and used in the Special Collections reading room during open hours.

In 2020 we adopted the name Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections, in honor of Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong. In 2019 Dr. Keelung Hong donated the personal papers and research material of his spouse Dr. Stephen O. Murray. Included in this donation was a generous financial gift that would make possible the renovation of the library’s Three East floor and allow for the Murray and Hong Special Collection staff and material to move into a carefully designed space tailored to their needs.

About Dr. Stephen O. Murray

Dr. Stephen O. Murray (1950-2019), was a sociologist, anthropologist, and comparative historian who published in a variety of topics, such as sexual and gender diversity, sociolinguistics, and the history of social sciences (anthropology, sociology, linguistics).

Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, Dr. Murray graduated from the James Madison College within Michigan State University, with a double major in Social Psychology, and Justice, Morality, and Constitutional Democracy. He was part of the second class graduating from the James Madison College in 1968. He will go on to earn a M.A. degree in Sociology from the University of Arizona, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Toronto. He also completed a post-doctoral training in Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley.

A notable activist, Dr. Murray was a founding member of the Sociologists' Gay Caucus (now Sociologists’ LGBTQ Caucus) at the American Sociological Association in 1974. He was also involved in the formation of the Anthropological Research Group on Homosexuality of the American Anthropological Association (renamed Society of Lesbian & Gay Anthropologists; and later Association for Queer Anthropology).

Dr. Murray and Dr. Keelung Hong shared a life since 1981, and established their home in San Francisco. For over a decade Dr. Murray worked as an analyst for the California County Behavioral Health Information System developed by the PSP Information Group, while he continued to research and publish on the many topics he was passionate about.

About Dr. Keelung Hong

Dr. Keelung Hong is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Taiwan Liposome Company (TLC), a biopharmaceutical company.

Dr. Hong was born in Taichung, Taiwan. He studied Chemistry at the Taiwan Cheng Kung University, earned an M.S. in Chemistry from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.

From 1979 to 1998, Dr. Hong worked at the Liposome Research Laboratory of the Cancer Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. He later worked as a research scientist focusing on improving cancer therapy at the Pacific Medical Center Research Institute of the University of California, San Francisco.

In 1997 Dr. Hong founded the biopharmaceutical company Taiwan Liposome Company where he is currently the CEO. In addition to this, from 1999 to 2005 he served as the Chief Scientific Officer of Hermes Biosciences, Inc. which he co-founded.

To honor the memory of his spouse, Dr. Hong donated an invaluable historical collection comprising the life work of Dr. Stephen O. Murray.

“Stephen O. Murray 1950-2019 Obituary.”SFGATE, Sept 24, 2019, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/stephen-murray-obituary?id=2009682

Monroe, Maddie. “MSU Library receives its largest donation in history.” The State News, 11 June 2020, https://statenews.com/article/2020/06/msu-library-receives-largest-donation-in-history

“Keelung Hong – Board Member.” TLC, https://www.tlcbio.com/en-global/board-of-directors/index

“Keelung Hong, Ph.D.” 2018 TAAP Symposium, Taiwanese American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2018.