(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Rare Books and Manuscripts department holds approximately 5,000 bound manuscripts. Covering a broad range of topics, time periods, and geographic origins, the collection is comprised of diaries, journals, commonplace books, musical scores, sacred texts, scholarly and literary works, scientific treatises, business records, and government documents, among other topics and forms.
Most bound manuscripts in the department are either American or British in origin, but the collections include Armenian, Haitian, Hebrew, French, Italian, and Spanish manuscripts, along with selections of Persian, Arabic, and Ethiopic manuscripts.
Some of the manuscripts held in the department are part of larger archival collections and are described accordingly, though the majority are cataloged individually. As of 2018, the majority of the bound manuscripts in the department are accessible through card catalogs only. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)
