| The
Rare Book Collection contains volumes from
the earliest years of Western printing from the presses of
Koberger, Froben, and Plantin on history, philosophy and religion.
Early editions of Ariosto, Petrarch and Dante are among some
sixteenth-century works available to readers. The major strength
of the Collection is in American and English literature. Some
of the writers extensively represented are Pope, Goldsmith,
Smollett, Byron, Coleridge, Austen, Dickens, Emerson, Thoreau,
Melville, Whitman, Dickinson, and Robert and Elizabeth Browning.
Also included in the Collection are first editions of the
Boston publisher Ticknor and Fields; as well as many volumes
of Victorian and Edwardian authors.
European and American history of the
eighteenth century is well represented, with emphasis on Massachusetts
history. In the field of early Americana there are many books
by the Mather family, as well as a copy of the Federalist
Papers, annotated by James Madison. There are also nineteenth-century
slave narratives and contemporary printings of early writers
such as Phillis Wheatley and Frederick Douglass. The historical
resources are significantly substantial in the subject areas
of military history, Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
Many of the collections contained within
our Rare Book holdings were compiled by passionate collectors
and patrons and donated to the Center. They include:
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