News for the Traveler

Visitors to the famous Tanglewood Music Festival in western Massachusetts may wish to spend a few hours in the nearby town of Great Barrington, home of the Albert Schweitzer Center.

The center, on a small farm just outside of town, combines a modern research library, miniature museum, and motion picture theater, all dedicated to the life and work of Dr. Schweitzer.

The center was conceived by Erica Anderson, a Viennese photographer who spent 15 years with Schweitzer at his jungle hospital in Lambarene, Gabon. Working without pay, she helped with cooking, dug ditches, tended patients, and accompanied the doctor on several trips to Europe. She also made an Academy Award-winning film, ''Albert Schweitzer,'' which is shown to visitors at the center on request.

The center contains the largest collection of Schweitzer books and manuscripts in the world, plus more than 1,000 letters Miss Anderson received from Schweitzer over many years. It is open to the public free of charge every day except Monday from 10 until 4. (Sunday hours are noon to 4.) For more information, call (413) 528-3124.