During the 1980s, John Hasbrouk Van Vleck and his wife Abigail donated over 4,000 Japanese woodblock prints to the Chazen in memory of his father Edward Burr Van Vleck, mathematics professor at the UW from 1906 to 1929.

E. B. Van Vleck began to collect Japanese prints around 1909. His most substantial acquisition, in the late 1920s, consisted of approximately 4,000 prints that had been owned by Frank Lloyd Wright. E. B. Van Vleck continued to buy and sell prints throughout his life. After his death, the collection was cared for by his son John Hasbrouk and Abigail.

The collection, with works by approximately 137 artists, records the history of Japanese printmaking from the late 18th into the 20th century. It is particularly strong in the works of the 19th-century artist Utagawa Hiroshige. In fact, with works numbering some 2,200, the Hiroshige collection is among the most significant in the world. The Van Vleck collection also has fine examples by Hokusai, Harunobu, Shunsho, Toyonobu, and many of the shin-hanga artists of the 20th century including Hasui and Yoshida.

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