Politics and Government

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)

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 Collection." 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)

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.

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.