Ephemera

Parker, Theodore (1810-1860) Library

, opens a new window (Rare Books & Manuscripts) A leading American intellectual born in Lexington, Massachusetts in 1810, Theodore Parker was ordained a Unitarian minister in 1836. Parker was a notable religious reformer, a scholar, a member of the transcendentalist movement, and a major voice in the anti-slavery movement. The Theodore Parker Collection comprises approximately 12,800 volumes, 4,600 pamphlets, and many manuscripts. The collection includes grammars, dictionaries of foreign languages, encyclopedias, Latin and Greek classics, literary histories, books on jurisprudence, philosophy, theology, and material on the anti-slavery movement, including broadsides, scrapbooks, and associated ephemera. After his death in 1860, Parker's books came to the BPL via bequest. The second major donated collection of rare materials after the Bowditch Collection, opens a new window, Parker's library brought with it the first medieval manuscript acquired by the BPL, and many of the finest and most important incunabula, opens a new window in the collection. Online access: Those items that have been electronically cataloged can be retrieved in either of the online catalogs, opens a new window via a title search for "Theodore Parker Library (Boston Public Library)." Many items from the collection have been digitized. Most of the volumes and pamphlets are included in the index to the Catalogue of the Books in the Bates Hall of the Boston Public Library., opens a new window For an early description of the collection, see: Thomas Wentworth Higginson, “Report to the Trustees of the Boston Public Library on the Parker Library” in The works of Theodore Parker (Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1907) vol. 15, pp. 1-10., opens a new window (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Trent (William Peterfield) Collection of Defoe and Defoeana

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) In addition to writing some of the first English novels, Daniel Defoe was a prolific political pamphleteer and is considered by many to be a founder of modern journalism. The William P. Trent Collection of Defoe and Defoeana is one of the most comprehensive collections of rare and historically significant editions of the works of Daniel Defoe and his contemporaries held by any institution, public or private.  The nucleus of this collection is a set of first editions of Defoe’s works, bound in seventy-seven volumes. Throughout the collection, there are hundreds of the various editions and bibliographic states of Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and Roxana as well as a set of his Review, a forerunner of Addison’s and Steele’s Tatler and Spectator, and hundreds of his famous political pamphlets. This collection contains many copies of titles not known in any other collection. Some of the rarest include: Brief Explanation of the Shortest Way with Dissenters (1703), the publication that sent Defoe to the pillory for three days; Fifteen Comforts of a Scotchman (1707), attributed to Defoe; a manuscript copy of Balcarre’s Account of the Affairs in Scotland (1714), the preface contributed by Defoe; and an attack on Defoe entitled Stockings out of Heels (1703). In addition, there are hundreds of unique pamphlets as well as numerous sole copies extant of Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, and Roxana. Gathered by William Peterfield Trent, a Columbia University professor, and acquired by the library in 1929, the collection also includes pamphlets from the times of William and Mary, Queen Anne, and George the First as well as works by John Dunton, Jonathan Swift, John Oldmixon, and John Toland, numerous tracts dealing with the Sacheverell controversy, and a long run of pamphlets concerning the Dissenters or Nonconformists. Information and online access

• Digitized materials from this collection can be found on Internet Archive, opens a new window.
• Items that have been electronically cataloged can be retrieved through either of the online catalogs, opens a new window via a title search for "William P. Trent Collection of Works Relating to Daniel Defoe and His Time."
• A printed catalog of the collection, issued in 1966, is available online, opens a new window.
• Digitized catalog cards, including a shelflist, which lists items in the collection by call number, as well as the author file for Daniel Defoe, which lists works by or attributed to Defoe specifically, can be accessed below.

World's Fairs Collection

Brought together by historian Robert Feer, this collection contains well over 3,000 items including manuscripts, official printed records of the fairs, ephemera, photographs and souvenirs. Originally limited to material relating to World's Fairs of North America, this collection has been expanded to incorporate other fairs and expositions including those abroad. A checklist of the founding collection was published in 1976. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)