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The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is Yale University's principal
repository for literary papers and for early manuscripts and rare books
in the fields of literature, theology, history, and the natural sciences.
In addition to its general collection of rare books and manuscripts,
the library houses the Yale Collection of American Literature, the Yale
Collection of German Literature, the Yale Collection of Western Americana,
and the Osborn Collection. The Beinecke collections afford opportunities
for interdisciplinary research in such fields as medieval, Renaissance,
and eighteenth-century studies, art history, photography, American studies,
the history of printing, and modernism in art and literature. Books
and manuscripts at Yale have been extensively described since 1926 in
the "Yale University Library Gazette," which is available in many libraries.
For a detailed description of the Beinecke collections, refer to A
Guide to the Collections.
The majority of the Beinecke Library's holdings are cataloged online
in the Yale Orbis system.
Printed holdings not in Roman alphabets are listed in the card catalogs
at the Beinecke and at the Sterling Memorial Library. Many of the Beinecke
Library's finding aids for manuscripts are available on the Finding
Aid Database. Searching
Online Catalogs provides general information about the Beinecke
Library's online records for manuscripts and archival collections.
The following screens contain brief descriptions of the Beinecke Library's
major collections and suggestions on how best to search for specific
holdings.
The General Collection of Early Books and Manuscripts includes Greek
and Roman papyri, medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, Near-Eastern
manuscripts, and historical archives of English and Italian families.
Early printing is represented by nearly 4,000 incunables and an extensive
collection of sixteenth-century imprints, with substantial holdings
in Greek and Latin classics, Italian, French, English, and Neo-Latin
literature, Reformation theology, and New World exploration. Other special
holdings include the Mellon Alchemical collection, the Cary Playing
Card collection, the Tibetan collection, and the Wagstaff collection
of sporting books.
For more information about specific Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts,
refer to
About Searching for Early Books and Manuscripts Collections. For
more information about Greek and Roman papyri holdings, refer to
About Searching the Yale Papyrus Collection. Search Orbis
for other holdings in the General Collection.
For a more detailed description of the collection, refer to the General
Collection portion of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library's A
Guide to the Collections.
The General Collection of Modern Books and Papers is particularly strong
in English literature and history from the seventeenth to the twentieth
century, continental European literature and history, books related
to travel and exploration, and newspapers, especially British serials
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. There are also large collections
relating to Jonathan Edwards, Ezra Stiles, Benjamin Franklin, and American
children's literature. Among the British authors represented in depth
are Arnold, Bacon, J.M. Barrie, Beckford, Boswell, the Brownings, Byron,
Carlyle, Coleridge, Conrad, Defoe, Dickens, George Eliot, Fielding,
Gissing, Hardy, Johnson, Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Meredith, Milton, Pope,
Ruskin, G.B. Shaw, Stevenson, Swift, Swinburne, Tennyson, Trollope,
Rebecca West, and Wordsworth. In the field of continental literature
and history, the library has outstanding holdings related to Tocqueville,
Cassirer, Marinetti and Futurism, and the Dada and Surrealist movements,
as well as large Slavic collections.
To search for holdings in the General Collection of Modern Books and
Manuscripts collections, refer to Searching
Online Catalogs.
For a more detailed description of the collection, refer to the General
Collection portion of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library 's
A Guide to the Collections.
The Osborn Collection consists of English literary and historical manuscripts
from the Anglo-Saxon period to the twentieth century, with particular
emphasis on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and on English
poetry. Letters and papers of scholars and antiquaries, such as Edmond
Malone, Charles Burney, and many lesser known individuals, are supplemented
by historical manuscripts and state papers. A small gathering of scores
includes early lute music and autograph manuscripts by Gustav Mahler
and such modern English composers as Ralph Vaughan Williams and Benjamin
Britten.
To search for holdings in the Osborn Collection, Searching Online Catalogs.
For a more detailed description of the collection, refer to the Osborn
Collection portion of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library 's
A Guide to the Collections.
The German Literature Collection contains rare books and first editions
from the seventeenth through the nineteenth century. The William A.
Speck Collection is one of the finest Goethe libraries outside Germany,
while the Faber du Faur collection of German baroque literature has
long served as a bibliographical source in its field. Lessing, Schiller,
Heine, and Rilke have been collected in depth. Manuscripts include the
papers of Hermann Broch, correspondence of the Kurt Wolff Verlag, Thomas
Mann manuscripts and letters, and materials relating to Goethe.
To search for holdings in the German Literature Collection, refer to Searching Online Catalogs.
For a more detailed description of the collection, refer to the German
Literature Collection portion of the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library 's
A Guide to the Collections.
The Collection of American Literature is noted for its bibliographical
strength in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century writings. Manuscript
holdings for the nineteenth century include works by Bryant, Irving,
Cooper, Clemens, and Whitman. Among twentieth-century authors, Sinclair
Lewis, Luhan, Wharton, H. D., Pound, Stein, and Williams are represented
by major collections. Also present are the papers of the Societe Anonyme
and artists Stieglitz, O'Keeffe, and Marsden Hartley; Philip Barry,
O'Neill, Wilder, and papers of the Theatre Guild are among the theatrical
holdings. The James Weldon Johnson Collection contains papers of pre-eminent
writers of the Harlem Renaissance including Johnson himself, DuBois,
Cullen, Hurston, Hughes, McKay, Richard Wright, and Jean Toomer.
To search for holdings in the American Literature Collection, refer to Searching Online Catalogs.
For a more detailed description of the collection, refer to the American
Literature Collection portion of the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library 's
A Guide to the Collections .
The Collection of Western Americana consists of books, manuscripts,
maps, art, prints, photographs, and printed ephemera which document
the exploration, settlement, and development of the Trans-Mississippi
West through World War I. The collection, renowned for its holdings
in nineteenth-century government surveys of the region, also contains
extensive material about the history and culture of Native American
communities throughout the West, and on the history of the Spanish Southwest,
Texas, the Pacific Northwest, early Mormonism, and the overland trails
experience.
To search for holdings in the Western Americana Collection refer to
Searching
Online Catalogs.
For a more detailed description of the collection, refer to the Western
Americana Collection portion of the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library 's
A Guide to the Collections.
For more information, contact the curator most
closely associated with your field of study or the
Public Services Librarian , Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library,
P.O. Box 208240, NewHaven, CT 06520-8240.
[ Beinecke
Research Workstation]
[ Beinecke
HomePage |The
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Comments:Ellen
R. Cordes, ellen.cordes@yale.edu
Copyright 1996. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
All rights reserved.
Revised: September 30, 2003
URL:http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/brblbrie.htm
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