Rare Books

1798 Collection

(Special Collections) The collection, which includes both primary and secondary resource material, spans a twenty-eight year period of Irish history from 1775-1803, concentrating on the Rebellion of 1798. This particular period of Irish history marks the beginning of the Irish republican movement which has dominated Irish politics to this day. The Collection includes significant material pertaining to the impact of the American War of Independence on Ireland, the rise influence and decline of the Irish Volunteers, the influence of the French Revolution on Irish radical thought, the social and economic consequences of the age of Enlightenment, the insurrection of 1803 and the other related topics. It contains close to 2,000 monographs, serials, newspapers, pamphlets, broadsides and manuscripts. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Adams, John (1735-1826) Library

Deposited with the Boston Public Library in 1894, the John Adams Library includes over 3,000 volumes collected by the second president during his lifetime (1735-1826) as well as many volumes donated by members of his family. One of the greatest private collections of its day, the Adams Library remains one of the largest colonial American libraries still intact. This remarkable collection represents the intellectual tastes of an influential thinker, writer, and political philosopher who helped shape the Constitution of the United States and drafted the Massachusetts Constitution, the oldest functioning written constitution in the world. John Adams’s library spans the fields of classics, literature, history, politics, government, philosophy, religion, law, science, mathematics, medicine, agriculture, language and linguistics, economics, and travel. The collection is of particular interest to scholars and historians because Adams recorded thousands of interpretive and critical manuscript annotations in the margins of hundreds of his books. Online access: The collection has been electronically cataloged and can be retrieved through either of the online catalogs. In the research catalog, opens a new window, use an author search for "Adams, John, 1735-1826, former owner". In the catalog, opens a new window use a title search for "John Adams Library (Boston Public Library)" With limited exceptions, the John Adams Library collection has been fully digitized and made available online through Internet Archive. A digitized copy of the 1917 printed catalog is also available. In addition, LibraryThing has compiled a complete catalog of books known to be owned by John Adams held across institutions. The LibraryThing catalog also includes links to digitized copies and unedited transcriptions of many of Adams's annotations in the "Comments" field. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Barlow, Samuel L.M. (1826-1889) Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Boston Public Library was a major purchaser of books from the February 1890 sale of the library of Samuel Latham Mitchill Barlow. Among other highlights, the Barlow Collection contains the first Latin edition of the Columbus Letter, opens a new window; the first edition of Richard Hakluyt’s Principal navigations, Nicolas Bautista Monardes’ Joyfull newes out of the newfound world; Ann Bradstreet’s Tenth muse; George Mourt’s A relation…of the English Plantation, opens a new window; and rare works of the 15th through the 16th centuries in Dutch, French, and Spanish. It also includes The True Copie of the Court booke of the Governor and Society of the Massachusetts Bay in New England, opens a new window, written between 1640 and 1646, which  documents the pre-migration business of the Massachusetts Bay Company beginning in 1629, along with rulings of the General Court and the Court of Assistant of the Massachusetts Bay Colony through 1646. Online access Those items in the collection that have been electronically cataloged are retrievable through either of the online catalogs, opens a new window via an author search for "Barlow, Samuel L.M. (Samuel Latham Mitchill), 1826-1889, former owner." A description of the Barlow library and a list of the Library's purchases at his sale may be found in the BPL Bulletin, vol.IX (1890, p. 206-208), opens a new window and IX (1890, p. 359-376), opens a new window. A copy of the Barlow sale catalog, annotated by Mellen Chamberlain with prices paid by the BPL, is available at Internet Archive, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Barton, Thomas Pennant (1803-1869) Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Thomas Pennant Barton (1803 – April 5, 1869) was an American bibliophile who is primarily remembered for the collection of books by and relating to William Shakespeare and English drama that he amassed between 1834 and 1869. Four years after his death, Barton's collection was acquired by the Boston Public Library, where it has remained ever since. John Alden refers to Barton as "the first American to form an extensive, purposeful collection of Shakespeariana." Indeed, his participation in the Heber sale (1834-1836) marked a watershed moment in the history of American Shakespeare collecting. During that single sale, Barton acquired, among other things, the first quarto of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the first quarto of The Merchant of Venice, and the third quarto of Hamlet (lot nos. 2012, 2014, and 2021, respectively). Over time, Barton became increasingly interested in enhancing the Shakespearian portion of his library by creating a comprehensive collection of autographs of figures associated with Shakespeare's work. The autograph collection the Barton amassed contains thousands of handwritten letters and documents by Shakespearian editors, translators, commentators, publishers, printers, actors, collectors, and scholars. Barton was also interested in English drama more generally, and the collection is particularly strong with respect to the early modern period, containing hundreds of quarto editions of English playbooks by playwrights including Christopher Marlowe, John Lyly, Thomas Kyd, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher, and Thomas Heywood, among others. Barton also amassed substantial selections of French, Italian, Spanish, and German literature and belles-lettres. In addition, nearly 4,000 volumes in Barton's collection come from the personal library of his father-in-law, Secretary of State Edward Livingston, which Barton inherited in 1836. Livingston's library consisted largely of works on jurisprudence and history. Background information on Barton and his library may be found in the Catalogue of the Miscellaneous Portion of the Collection (1888); Boston Public Library Bulletin, 4th series, v.3 (1921), pp. 173-177, opens a new window; and "America’s First Shakespeare Collection," by John Alden, in Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, v. 58 (1964) pp. 169-173. Information and online access

• Those items that have been electronically cataloged are retrievable through either of the online catalogs, opens a new window via an author search for "Barton, Thomas Pennant, 1803-1869, former owner."
• Digitized materials from this collection can be accessed through Internet Archive, opens a new window or Digital Commonwealth, opens a new window.
• The 19th-century published catalog of the collection is a particularly useful resource, as it provides a comprehensive list of books in the Barton Collection, including many thousands of items that have not yet been electronically cataloged.
• Early playbooks from the Barton Collection form the core of the  Early English Playbooks Collection, opens a new window.

Benton, Josiah (1843-1917) Collection of the Book of Common Prayer

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Benton Collection of Editions of the Book of Common Prayer is one of the most extensive existing collections of its kind and includes first-edition copies of the Prayer Book of 1549, King Edward’s second Prayer Book of 1552, Queen Elizabeth’s Book of 1559, King James' of 1604, and five copies of the final alteration of 1662, in addition to hundreds of other editions. There are also nearly 100 translations of The Book of Common Prayer into the languages of peoples from around the world. The "American" portion of the collection contains the first edition of of The Book of Common Prayer printed in America (1710), the "Mohawk Prayer Book" of 1715, Benjamin Franklin’s abridgment of 1773, and the liturgy of the first Episcopal Church in Boston, 1785. The multiple editions and revisions of The Book of Common Prayer brought together by this collection represent not only the history of the Church of England, but also the history of early modern European printing and Anglo-American bookbinding more generally. A majority of the books are in contemporary bindings, with material evidence of provenance entirely intact. In addition to The Book of Common Prayer itself, the collection also contains some of the scarcest English Primers, prayers books, and religious tracts, including the Scottish liturgy of 1637, and the first Prayer Book of the Church of Ireland of 1721, The original collection was bequeathed by Boston Public Library trustee Josiah H. Benton in 1919. It began with 658 volumes and now numbers well over 1,500.  Online access Those items that have been electronically cataloged are retrievable through either of the online catalogs, opens a new window through a title search for "Benton Collection of Editions of the Book of Common Prayer." Digitized materials from this collection can be accessed through both Internet Archive, opens a new window and Digital Commonwealth, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Bowditch, Nathaniel (1773-1838) Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Nathaniel Bowditch (1773-1838) of Salem, Mass., was a self-taught mathematician, navigator, and businessman who gained fame for his work on ocean navigation, particularly for his book The New American Practical Navigator (1802). He published many treatises on mathematical problems, navigation, and astronomical computations, and assembled a sizable personal library, which his heirs donated to the Boston Public Library in 1858. Originally comprised of approximately 2,500 books, 500 pamphlets, 100 maps, and 29 volumes of manuscripts from Bowditch's personal library, the Bowditch Collection  has since grown to over 10,000 items thanks to an 1890 bequest of funds by J. Ingersoll Bowditch. In its current form, the Bowditch Collection represents the BPL's primary collection of rare printed scientific and mathematical works. Highlights of the collection include first editions of pathbreaking books like Copernicus' De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, opens a new window (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) (1543) and Isaac Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, opens a new window (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) (1687). Examples of additional early or otherwise important editions include the 1610 Frankfurt edition, opens a new window of Galileo's Sidereus Nuncius (Starry messenger), Kepler's Astronomia Nova (New Astronomy) (1609), and the first edition of Farkas Bolyai's Scientiam Spatii Absolute Veram Exhibens ..., opens a new window ([Appendix] Explaining the Absolutely True Science of Space) (1832), as well as countless other books of enduring value, including rare and important atlases and treatises on navigation, mathematics, and astronomy from the 16th through 20th centuries. Information and online access Those items that have been electronically cataloged are retrievable through either of the online catalogs, opens a new window via a title search for Nathaniel Bowditch Collection (Boston Public Library). The personal papers of Nathaniel Bowditch can be retrieved via a title search for Nathaniel Bowditch Papers (Boston Public Library). A description of the collection was published in: Margaret Munsterberg, "The Bowditch Collection in the Boston Public Library," Isis: A Journal of the History of Science 34 (1942): 140-142. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Codman Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Codman Collection was originally gifted to the BPL by James M. and Henrietta Gray Sargent Codman in memory of their sons, Henry Sargent and Philip Codman. The collection contains approximately 2,000 volumes on landscape gardening, botany, natural history, and domestic architecture, containing works by Humphrey Repton, John Claudius Loudon, and Frederick Law Olmsted, among others. Online access: A digitized catalog for this collection is available online through Internet Archive, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Early English Playbooks, 1594-1799

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Comprised chiefly of individual editions of English-language stage plays issued between 1594 and 1799, the Boston Public Library's collection of early English playbooks is extensive and diverse. Numbering well over 1,500 items, the collection also includes masques, pageants, and other dramatic entertainments, as well as collections of plays. Highlights include 9 quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays issued during his lifetime, including the first editions of Midsummer Night's Dream, opens a new window, Much Ado About Nothing, opens a new window, and The Merchant of Venice; all four 17th-century folio editions of Shakespeare's works, the 1616 Ben Jonson folio, opens a new window, the 1647 and 1679 Beaumont and Fletcher folios, the 1602 editions of Marston's Antonio's Revenge, opens a new window and Antonio and Mellida, and Cary's Tragedy of Mariam., opens a new window Most of the items in this collection are found within the Thomas Pennant Barton Collection, opens a new window, though many are held elsewhere within the department. Online access Those items that have been electronically cataloged are retrievable through either of the online catalogs, opens a new window via a title search for Early English Playbooks, 1594-1799. Filtering for "online collections" will retrieve only those items that have been digitized. Additionally, the main collections page, opens a new window can be accessed through the Internet Archive. As of 2018, the online portion of this collection represents the most substantial open-access repository of digitized early English playbooks available online. Many items in the collection are yet to be electronically cataloged or digitized. (Rare Books & Manuscripts, opens a new window)

Incunabula

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Books, pamphlets, and broadsides printed with moveable type in Europe before December 31, 1500 are generally referred to as incunabula. This term is borrowed from the Latin word for "cradle," or "swaddling clothes." Books dating from this period thus represent the infancy of modern printing in Europe. Primarily acquired via purchase, but substantially fortified by donations of individual books and complete libraries, BPL's incunabula collection closely documents the inception and spread of printing throughout Europe and the West. As of November, 2020, the collection is comprised of​​​ 560 discrete 15th-century editions. Within this group, there are a small number of duplicates, as well as a number of multi-volume sets. The total number of physical items in the collection printed during the 15th century -- counting duplicates and individual volumes -- is 587. Information and online access Visit the BPL research guide, opens a new window for more information, including a history of the collection, links to digitized BPL incunabula, new acquisitions, and a guide to finding incunabula in the BPL online catalogs. Images: (above left): a woodcut from Koberger's 9th German Bible; (above right) a passage of text in the BPL Gutenberg Bible leaf. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Kleist, Herbert (1902-1986) Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Kleist was a librarian and book collector with a particular interest in the art of book design and illustration. The Kleist Collection contains about 5,000 volumes of miniature books, pulp fiction, children’s books, Christmas books, and late 19th-century and early 20th-century imprints. Kleist’s focus on decorative covers, dust jackets, and illustration is the overriding theme of the collection, which documents the work of well-known, obscure, and forgotten designers and illustrators. Online access: Items that have been fully electronically cataloged can be retrieved through either of the online catalogs, opens a new window via a title search for "Herbert Kleist Collection (Boston Public Library)". (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Lewis, John A. Collection of early New England imprints

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) John Allen Lewis of Boston (1819-1885), was a collector of early New England imprints with a particular interest in the earliest Boston printing presses. The collection bearing his name was donated to the BPL in 1890, 5 years after his death.  The Lewis collection is particularly rich in editions from the press of John Foster, including a copy of the first book printed in Boston: Increase Mather's The Wicked Man's Portion (1675). The collection also contains several works by William Penn and more than 200 works by Increase and Cotton Mather. Additional highlights include William Hubbard’s Narrative of the Troubles with the Indians, with the "White Hills" map (1677); John Underhill’s Newes from America (1638); and the Massachusetts Psalter (1709). The Lewis collection also contains several of the issues from Benjamin Franklin’s press, including copies of the Poor Richard Almanack. Online access: A digitized version of the printed catalog of this collection, opens a new window is available through Internet Archive. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Longfellow Memorial Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Longfellow Memorial Collection is focused specifically on literature. It comprises approximately 16,000 volumes containing works primarily by British and American authors, including many rare editions. In 1896, Victorine Artz of Chicago gave the sum of $10,000 for the purchase of valuable rare editions of the writings, either in verse or in prose, of American and foreign authors. Over time, other gifts and purchases have been incorporated into the collection, including nearly 900 volumes from the estate of Louise Chandler Moulton, and more than 300 others form the library of Elizabeth Porter Gould. The former were often inscribed presentation copies, often with autograph letters inserted. Among other notable first editions to be found in the collection are Little Women, Treasure Island, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Gulliver's Travels, Moby Dick, and The Scarlet Letter. The collection is rich in rare and important editions from authors including Samuel Beckett, James Brendan Connolly, Charles Dickens, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Phillis Wheatley Peters, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Radcliffe, and W.M. Thackeray. The collection also contains an extensive -- though not exhaustive -- collection of works by and about Walt Whitman (220 volumes).  Information and online access Information about those materials from the collection that have so far been electronically cataloged can be retrieved through either of the online catalogs via a title search for Longfellow Memorial Collection (Boston Public Library). Note: this collection is informally known as the Artz (Victorine T.) Collection of Literature. Pictured: (above left) Louisa May Alcott. Little women. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1868-1869 (A.111.4); (above right) Emily Dickinson. Poems. Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1891 (A.2231d.1) (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Medieval Manuscripts

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The BPL's Medieval and Early Renaissance Manuscripts Collection documents the development of Western script and illumination across six centuries. The collection represents a major resource for the study of history and art during the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Europe, and is among the finest held by any public institution in America. Holdings are rich in liturgical and devotional works, along with classical Latin and Greek texts, works of philosophy, science, law, geography, and a variety of other subjects and genres. Despite its name, the collection is not strictly limited by standard periodization. Certain later manuscripts, which continue earlier traditions of scribal practice or illumination, are also included, as are a select number of later manuscripts with close associations to materials at the core of the collections. Information and online access For detailed information about this distinguished collection, including information about its contents, history, and organization, please consult the BPL research guide, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

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)

Paul Sabatier Franciscan Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) This, the working collection of the scholar Paul Sabatier (1858-1928), contains approximately 2,000 volumes focused on the life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) and the Franciscan order. The collection comprises early manuscripts (both original sources and Sabatier’s many careful copies of those in European collections), 38 volumes from the 15th and 16th centuries, as well as hundreds of important later works, Franciscan periodicals, and numerous off-prints and presentation copies of books from students of St. Francis throughout the world. Many of these items contain Sabatier’s extensive manuscript notes. A description of the collection can be found in More Books (1931), pp. 273-286, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Prince, Thomas Library of the Old South Church

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Thomas Prince Collection and Library of the Old South Church -- usually just referred to as the Prince Collection -- is a group of approximately 3,500 books and 950 manuscripts assembled primarily by Old South pastors Thomas Prince (1687-1758) and Joseph Sewall (1688-1769). One of the few colonial American libraries to survive largely intact, the Prince Collection is a major resource for studies in the history of early New England. It is also an important resource for historians of the colonial American book. The collection preserves rare and sometimes unique pieces of evidence from the earliest presses in British North America, while contemporary inscriptions, annotations, and marginalia document the reception and circulation of texts in Boston, New England, and throughout the early modern Atlantic world. Holdings are particularly rich in early New England history and literature, along with theological works of the 17th and 18th centuries. Among other highlights, it includes the Bay Psalm Book, opens a new window (1640), and John Eliot's Indian Bible, opens a new window (1663), with many other editions representative of both the varied outputs of the early Cambridge and Boston presses, and of the intellectual life of colonial New England. Throughout the collection, evidence of book production and readerly intervention is rich and varied. Early Boston bookbinders are particularly well represented, with specimens from the workshops of Edmund Ranger and John Ratcliffe, among others. Contemporary bindings made with recycled paper preserve many fragments of early manuscripts and printed books. Many volumes, too, are annotated by successive generations of owners, while duplicate copies held throughout the collection facilitate close comparison and bibliographic study.  In addition to printed materials, the collection also contains a significant body over manuscripts, including a major collection of historical papers gathered and preserved by Prince himself. These manuscripts include papers of the Mather family, papers of the Cotton family, a group of papers relating to both the Cotton and Prince families, opens a new window, papers of the Hinckley family, and papers related to the case of Torrey v. Gardner (1734). Information and online access

• The BPL research guide for this collection contains a detailed history of the collection, information about how to search for materials, links to related BPL collections, and other useful resources.

Thayer, Eliza Library (d. 1876)

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Relates to history and biography, including a large number of costly illustrated works containing many historical portraits and a set of Granger's Biographical History of England (1824). The nucleus of this collection consisted of 890 volumes given to the Library in 1877 under the bequest of Miss Eliza Thayer of Roxbury. From time to time, her sisters gave from their own libraries many valuable illustrated books and memorials of Theodore Parker. The entire collection now numbers 5,398 volumes. A printed index of the collection, as well as an index of the portraits within the collection, are both available in the Rare Books & Manuscripts Department. Online access. A catalog of the collection was published in the BPL Quarterly Bulletin in 1895, opens a new window. See also the Theodore Parker Collection.(Rare Books & Manuscripts)  

Ticknor, George (1791-1871) Library of Spanish and Portuguese Literature

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Ticknor Library of Spanish and Portuguese Literature was bequeathed to the Library in 1871 by George Ticknor, Harvard professor of Spanish and French, and one of the founders of the Boston Public Library. Ticknor began to develop his collection in 1818 while traveling through Spain. Intending first to form a library through which he could survey the history of Spanish and Portuguese literature, the collection would later come to serve as the intellectual foundation for his monumental History of Spanish Literature (first published in 1849). Ticknor quickly established himself as the preeminent collector of Spanish and Portuguese literature and belles lettres in America. His renowned collection was at one time amongst the most comprehensive in the world. Ticknor continued his main collecting activities through 1852, procuring rarities from auction houses and book marts across Europe by way of his extensive network of connections. In later years, much effort was expended in filling the various gaps and voids within the collection as it already existed. At his death in 1871, Ticknor left his collection of 3,907 books to the BPL, along with a $4,000 trust fund, the income from which was to be devoted to building and maintaining the integrity of the collection. Through acquisition and through the addition of several thousand books already held by the library, the collection today numbers approximately 10,000 volumes. It covers many aspects of Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American literature and history, including books on art, science, law, and theology. It is especially rich in every phase of Spanish literature, from early editions of Don Quixote (1605) to the manuscript of Lope de Vega's El Castigo sin Venganza, and the Obras of 17th-century Mexican poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. The Ticknor collection contains comprehensive surveys of editions by authors such as Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Benito Geronimo Feyjoo y Montenegro, Luiz de Camoens, Luiz Velez de Guevara, and Fernan Caballero.  Information and online access

• A digitized catalog, opens a new window for this collection is available through Internet Archive.
• 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 Ticknor Library of Spanish and Portuguese Literature.
• Select materials from the collection have been digitized by the Internet Archive.

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.

Whitman, Walt (1819-1892) Collection

Contains more than 300 volumes relating to and by Walt Whitman. The collection was founded by Whitman's earliest biographer, Dr. Richard M. Bucke. In 1896, four years after the poet's death, Bucke gave to the Library a large group of Whitman's material, much of which he had received as one of Whitman's literary executors. Included with the collection were 17 photographs and 20 manuscripts (letters and rough drafts of poems). Additions to the original gift include the collections of two other executors, gifts from several of Whitman's publishers, and another group of volumes from the biographer. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

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)

Wyman, Lilla Viles Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Lilla Viles Wyman Collection is comprised of 183 dance books covering such topics as Swedish folk dances, Buddhist ceremonial dances, ballroom dancing, classical ballet, and the history of the polka, among others (Rare Books & Manuscripts)