In 2005, then-President Emeritus Martin Meyerson and Margy Ellin Meyerson established this fund to support the acquisition and conservation of scholarly material for the University of Pennsylvania Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Mr. and Mrs. Meyerson were long-time supporters of the Penn Library, serving as members of the University of Pennsylvania Library Board of Overseers for over a decade. Their dedication to the role of the Library within the University community led them to establish two other endowed funds for collection development, the Laura Jan Meyerson Poetry Fund and the Martin and Margy Meyerson Endowment Fund for the Built Environment.

Educated at Columbia and Harvard, Martin Meyerson held over 20 honorary doctorates. His earlier academic appointments included Williams Professor at Harvard and Director of the Joint Center for Urban Studies of MIT and Harvard, Dean and Acting Chancellor at the University of California at Berkeley, and President of the University of Buffalo. Author and editor, his honors included decorations from Italy, France, and Japan. He served on company boards and has been an advisor to various governments, the United Nations, and the White House. He served as Chairman of the Institute of International Education and was Honorary President of the International Association of Universities in Paris.

Margy Meyerson was educated at the University of Chicago and earned Master's Degrees from Bryn Mawr College and Penn. She was a chair of the Rosenbach Museum & Library, a post she held for more than a dozen years. A trustee of the Presbyterian Medical Center, the American University in Paris Foundation, and the American Poetry Center, she served on the boards of the Mellon/PSFS Bank, the World Affairs Council, the Lewis Stevens Trust, and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council. For a decade, she was one of five public members of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. An author, and former research director of the American Society of Planning Officials, she taught at the University of California at Berkeley and was a research fellow at Yale University. She was named Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania by the Governor of the Commonwealth.

Paul Miller, Chairman of the Board of Trustees during Martin Meyerson's Presidency, toasted the Meyersons at their farewell dinner on January 29, 1981 with:

"Together they lifted the intellectual and societal aspirations of this community of scholars and increased the vitality of the University as an educational institution of international stature."