Archival Collections A-Z

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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)

Found in Irish Studies Rare Books

20th Regiment Collection

(Rare Books and Manuscripts) This collection contains books, manuscripts, images, and artifacts relating to military affairs, with a particular focus on the American Civil War and on Massachusetts soldiers and regiments. The collection is particularly strong with respect to regimental histories, containing a near complete run of the General Orders of the various Departments of the Union Army, as well as contemporary sheet music (southern as well as northern). The collection also includes 10 scrapbooks of patriotic envelopes and 9 portfolios of the battle and camp photographs by Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner. In 1896, the surviving members of the 20th Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, donated $10,000 remaining from funds collected for the marble memorial lion in the McKim staircase to establish a special collection of books "of military and patriotic nature." As part of their original gift, members of the 20th Regiment Association donated copies of their own diaries, reports, and letters. To these have been added other manuscript materials pertaining to both North and South. While works concerning other wars and military engagements are not as extensive, there are interesting items from the War of 1812 and the Mexican War, and the monumental sets of official records of the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the American Expeditionary Force. There are also 345 volumes of personal narratives and other works on World War I, the gift of [Mary Boyle O'Reilly]. The collection continues to grow, now also adding materials focusing on Massachusetts' participation in World Wars I and II. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Found in Anti-Slavery Movement Literature Massachusetts

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Aarons, Jules Collection

Photographs by Boston street photographer Jules Aarons taken in the neighborhoods of Boston, including the West End and North End, from 1947 to 1976. (Prints & Photographs)

Found in Boston Photographs

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)

Found in Literature Massachusetts Politics and Government Rare Books

Adlow Collection of Boston Legal History

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) An extensive collection of documents and judicial records from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, dating from 1711 through 1904, with a primary focus on the years 1800 through 1825. The collection contains files of the Suffolk County Justice of the Peace, Court of Common Pleas, General Sessions of the Peace, and Supreme Judicial Court. The core of the collection is comprised of nearly 23,000 writs of attachment, opens a new window and writs of execution, opens a new window, organized chronologically and under the justices who issued them. The collection also contains runs of other documentation, sometimes substantially complete, including: coroner’s records and inquests dating from 1775 through 1860; lists of prisoners; warrants, recognizances, summonses, dockets, criminal complaints, opinions and judgments, jury materials (lists of jurors, indictments, etc.), petitions, militia delinquencies, complaints to the Health Department; accounts, expenses, and miscellaneous bills; documents relating to construction of the Leverett Street Jail, opens a new window and the Suffolk County Courthouse on School Street, opens a new window; papers of individual judges, and many additional materials. Though the Adlow Collection is comprised largely of judicial records, it is also an extremely rich source for studies in the social history of Boston. Individual documents often contain specific details and narratives of events in the lives of ordinary Bostonians recorded in no other sources. The collection is named after Elijah Adlow (1896-1982), Chief Justice of the Municipal Court of the City of Boston. In 1954, Judge Adlow was notified that, due to an immediate need for space, a collection of "rubbish" long stored in an old basement vault of the courthouse was being considered for removal and incineration. Upon inspecting the materials in question, Adlow recognized their historical significance and the urgent need for their preservation. Having halted the destruction of the entire cache, Adlow later arranged for the materials to be transferred to the Boston Public Library. Comprising approximately 40,000 items, the collection is organized into several different categories, described and processed at varying levels of detail. As of 2020, the collection is primarily accessible through a set of printed finding aids kept in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Department. For further information about use and access, consult the catalog record, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Found in Archives Boston Massachusetts

Anti-Slavery Collection

The nucleus of this collection was presented to the Library in the late 1890s by the family of William Lloyd Garrison and other individuals involved in the anti-slavery movement. The collection features artifacts, books, documents, letters, and pamphlets from Boston reformer Wendell Phillips and the letters and papers of orator and abolitionist leader William Lloyd Garrison dating from the 1830s through the 1870s, totaling more than 16,000 items. The collection also contains daguerreotypes of noted abolitionists; the papers of the Boston Female Anti-Slavery Society; and the papers of Maria Weston Chapman and Deborah Weston, Amos Augustus Phelps, Lydia Maria Child, Samuel Joseph May, and John Bishop Estlin. Other items include the full run and the account books of the abolitionist newspaper The Liberator; records of the American, New England, and Massachusetts Anti-Slavery societies; scrapbooks concerning Anthony Burns and John Brown; and the files of Ziba B. Oakes, a slave broker from Charleston, South Carolina. The library also has extensive holdings of printed material relating to the anti-slavery movement. The libraries of William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, and Theodore Parker are here, all rich in relevant pamphlets and broadsides. The Hunt Collection on the West Indies is another fine resource from a different perspective, as is the E.A. Phelps British Anti-Slavery Society Papers. In addition, an 89-page unpublished typed index to The Liberty Bell is available in the Rare Books Department. Online access: For more information about the collection, including its contents, history, and organization, please consult the BPL research guide, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Found in Anti-Slavery Movement Boston Massachusetts Social Action

Artz (Victorine T.) Collection of Literature, The

See: [Longfellow Memorial Collection]

B

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)

Found in Americana Literature Rare Books

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.

(Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Found in Literature Performing Arts Rare Books

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)

Found in Rare Books Religion

Boston Authors Club Library

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) A collection containing 2,000 titles by most of the 20th-century authors residing in the Boston metropolitan area as well as ephemeral material relating to the Club from its founding in 1887. Highlights include poetical tributes to Julia Ward Howe on her 86th birthday and to Alice Brown on her 62nd. The Club is still active and continues to contribute to this collection by forwarding books by its members to the BPL on an annual basis. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Found in Boston Literature

Boston Browning Society Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Given to the library in 1897, the collection contains monographs by and about Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning with photographs, manuscripts, first editions, and many biographical and critical works. The collection includes the Browning sketchbook, containing 29 caricatures and drawings by Robert Browning, and almost 200 by his father; proof sheets of Sordello, with corrections in the poet’s own hand; a copy of Bells and Pomegranates (1841-1846); and copies of some of Elizabeth Browning’s poetry in her own hand. The Society’s early records, a lock of Robert Browning’s hair, and a jewel box once belonging to Elizabeth Browning are included as well. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Found in Literature

Boston Latin School Archives

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) The Boston Latin School, founded in 1635, is the oldest educational institution in continuous existence in the United States. Comprising approximately 5,000 items, this collection documents the history of the school during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Printed materials consist of works published by and for the Boston Latin School: yearbooks, invitations, programs, student publications, periodical articles, works by classical authors, Latin and Greek grammars, and materials donated by the Boston Latin School Alumni. Manuscripts and unprinted works include mostly letters and correspondence. Highlights include orders of exercises, annual prize drills, attendance records, public declamations, books and memorabilia of the Boston Latin School Association. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

Found in Boston Education

Boston Tax Records

See: [City of Boston Tax Records, 1780-1821]

Bound manuscripts

(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)

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)

Found in Rare Books

Brown, Allen A. (1835-1916) Music Collection

(Arts Department, currently unavailable) An amateur musician and avid collector, Allen A. Brown donated his collection to the Boston Public Library in 1894. Clearly delineated in the terms of his gift was the fact that it was to be a non-circulating, research collection. At the time of the gift, there were approximately 6,900 volumes. By the time of his death, the collection had grown to around 16,000 volumes. The collection is particularly strong in music of the turn of the century. One of its particular strengths is in 19th-century opera, both published and manuscript scores: several of these are performance manuscripts. Part songs, chamber music, orchestral music and oratorios only represent part of the collection. It also contains pamphlets, musical polemics, biographies, monographs, and serials dating from all periods of music. A regular concert-goer, Brown amassed collections of concert programs from the Boston area and from the places he visited while on business. For certain performing groups such as the Handel & Haydn Society, he approached friends and acquaintances for their files to make his more complete. His collection also includes autographed scores dedicated to him by Boston composers. Today the collection continues to grow and now contains over 40,000 volumes. Online access: The digitized four-volume catalog of the Allen A. Brown collection (published 1910-1916) is available online. Selections from the Allen A. Brown Music collection are accessible through Digital Commonwealth and through the Internet Archive.

Found in Music

Brown, Allen A. (1835-1916) Theatre Collection

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) A wealth of material related to drama including works related to burlesque, circus, vaudeville, modern dance, ballet, Yiddish theater, Shakespeare, and opera donated to the Library in 1909. The monographs, now numbering about 7,000 volumes in the collection, are described in an annotated catalog. There are 165 scrapbooks which contain serial and newspaper clippings, magazine articles and theatrical portraits. Among the strong points of the Brown Collection are the 18th and 19th century dramatic periodicals, both English and American; the near complete files of playbills for 19th century Boston theaters; and a collection of 20 unique broadside programs printed before 1801. For additional theater-related collections, see: the Jack Benny letters and clippings, the Fred Allen collection, the Hanlon Family collection, the Boston Theatre Archives, the Tremont Theatre Archives, the Lila Viles Wyman Collection of the Dance, the Italian Libretti and Ballet Collections, the Bertram E. Adams collection of books relating to magic, and the Lotta Clark pageant collection. Online access: A digitized catalog for this collection is available through Internet Archive, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

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Chamberlain, Mellen (1821-1900) Collection of Autographs

(Rare Books & Manuscripts) Judge Mellen Chamberlain was a jurist, scholar, and autograph collector who served as Librarian of the Boston Public Library from 1878-1890. Chamberlain amassed what became, during his lifetime, one of the most extensive private collections of manuscripts in America. In 1893, three years after his retirement, he donated the entire collection to the BPL. Judge Chamberlain's interest in American history and literature is reflected in the wide and sometimes comprehensive scope of his collection. Containing approximately 20,000 letters, documents, and portraits, the Chamberlain Collection of Autographs now forms the nucleus of the Library’s overall manuscript holdings. Scope and Contents The Chamberlain Collection of Autographs documents American and European history, culture, and literature from the end of the 15th century through the late 19th century. The American portion of the collection is divided into three sections: Colonial, Revolutionary, and "Culture." documenting the social, political, legal, and military history of the colonies, with a particular focus on Boston and New England. The European portion of the collection is similarly broad in scope, with sections on royalty, culture, and Shakespeare. The culture section itself can be divided into two parts: philosophers and artists. The Shakespeare section consists primarily of correspondence by 18th- and 19th-century scholars and editors of Shakespeare, including Edmund Malone, Elizabeth Montagu, Thomas Bowdler, and George Steevens. Online access: A digitized version of the printed description for this collection is available through Internet Archive, opens a new window. (Rare Books & Manuscripts)

City of Boston Tax Records, 1780-1821