Information about the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters and related collections

A word-a-day dictionary from Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755), in celebration of the three hundredth anniversary of Johnson’s birth in 1709

Early modern British and European collections

European collections with particular strengths in avant-garde movements of the twentieth century

Poetry collections, recent acquisitions, and events

An online exhibition providing a window into the Beinecke Library’s Modern Books and Manuscripts and American Literature collections

Comments from University Librarian Alice Prochaska

Frank Turner, John Hay Whitney Professor of History and the director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library describes the life and writings of Alexis de Tocqueville. (29:53)

An audio essay by Eric Ward '09, read by Presca Ahn '09, exploring the life, legacy, and archive of James Welch, the American writer of Blackfeet and Gros Ventre heritage. (15:28)

Robert A.M. Stern, J.M. Hoppin Professor and Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, discusses the architecture and history of the Beinecke Library, designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Construction photographs of the Beinecke Library are available in the Beinecke's Digital Collections. (7:17)

Richard Deming, lecturer in the Department of English at Yale University, describes a collection of scrapbooks that document the work and family life of Jane Wodening and her husband, the avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage. See images from the scrapbooks in the Beinecke Library's Digital Collections. (16:31)

The Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of Children's Literature is one of the largest and most diverse collections of its kind. In this podcast, librarian Ellen Ellickson speaks with Tim Young, Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts, about the collection. (19:45)

In this lecture from the Beinecke's History of the Book Series, John Palfrey, Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School, Co-Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Vice Dean of the Harvard Law Library, and co-author of Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives, speaks about digital readers and the future of the book. (46:39)

Caryl Phillips, Professor of English at Yale University describes his process of writing the introduction to the Vintage Books, British edition of Richard Wright’s landmark text, Native Son. (15:27)

Jonathan Holloway, Yale Professor of History, African American Studies, and American Studies recounts visiting the Beinecke Library in his first month of graduate school and the transformative experience that grew out of his surprise encounter with Richard Wright's landmark text, Native Son. (7:27)

Famous for her strong opinions about art as well as for her beauty and wit, radical editor Margaret Anderson was a key figure in American and European Modernism. Archivist Molly Wheeler speaks with Nancy Kuhl, Curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature, about this archival collection. (23:06)

Antiquarian bookseller William Reese, Yale class of 1977, discusses American naturalist and artist John James Audubon’s monumental work Birds of America. (28:45)

Dr. William Whobrey, Assistant Dean of Yale College and Lecturer in Germanic Languages and Literatures discusses Johannes Gutenberg, Yale's copy of the Gutenberg Bible, and the significance of the invention of moveable type. (7:33)

In this podcast, Nancy Kuhl, Associate Curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature discusses highlights from the exhibition, Metaphor Taking Shape. (7:47)

Timothy Young, curator of the Betsy Beinecke Shirley Collection of American Children's Literature, is interviewed by Nancy Kuhl, curator of the Yale Collection of American Literature about his recent publication, Drawn to Enchant. (12:03)

A podcast describing highlights of the 2007 exhibition Documenting Slavery. (6:41)

A podcast by collector, guest curator and Kipling scholar David Alan Richards, describing how he built the world's largest collection of unique Kipling items. (12:01)

Podcasts of poetry readings by contemporary American poets. The current schedule of reading is available online through Poetry at Beinecke Library: Readings at Beinecke. Recordings from past readings are available from the Yale Collection of American Literature Reading Series finding aid.