Guide to Special Collections
Overview
Special Collections at the Yale Divinity School Library include more than 4500 linear feet of archival and manuscript material, pamphlet collections, and extensive holdings in microtext format. Holdings include personal and organizational papers, sermons, reports, pamphlets, and ephemera related to various aspects of religious history. Particular strengths of the collection are its documentation of the Protestant missionary endeavor, religious work among college and university students, and records related to American clergy and evangelists. The Divinity Library collection includes personal papers of numerous faculty members, and ephemeral material related to life at the Divinity School; official archives of the Divinity School are deposited in the Yale University Archives.
These holdings form part of the Day Missions Library, North America's preeminent collection documenting the missionary movement and world Christianity. Many of the missionary papers held by the Divinity Library were acquired in connection with the China Records Project. The Divinity Library also has a notable collection of Missionary Bibles.
Descriptions of collections
- There are online finding aids for all original format archival collections. These finding aids can be searched as a whole via the Yale Finding Aid Database.
- Browseable lists of Divinity Library special collections are also available. These lists include microform collections as well as original format collections. Brief descriptions of the collections are provided, with links to available online finding aids:
- Some materials from the Divinity Library Special Collections have been digitized: Online Images and Texts
Use of materials
See the Special Collections page for information about access and use.
