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Research > Library Collections
The Library is perhaps best known for its collection of approximately two-thirds of the traceable (and half of the known) volumes once belonging to Horace Walpole, numerous editions of his own works as well as those printed at his Strawberry Hill Press, and copies of each edition of the 1842 Sale catalogue. Highlights of a rich collection of extra-illustrated volumes include several copies of Walpole's Catalogue of the Royal and Noble Authors of England, his Description of the Villa, the 1842 Sale catalogue, Seeley's Horace Walpole and His World, and Pennant's Journey from London to the Isle of Wight, to name but a few. The books are cataloged in Orbis, Yale's online library catalog, and the Walpole and Strawberry Hill items are described in detail in the bibliographies listed below. Indices to other printed materials are available at the Library in Farmington.
Hazen, Allen Tracy. A Catalogue of Horace Walpole's Library. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1969. Hazen, Allen Tracy. A Bibliography of Horace Walpole. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948. Hazen, Allen Tracy. A Bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1948.
The manuscript collections at the Lewis Walpole Library provide invaluable insight into eighteenth-century life. Well known for the approximately 3000 letters to and from Horace Walpole and a further 3000 photostats and transcripts of letters from other collections which together have been published in the Yale Correspondence, the Library also holds other manuscript materials by or related to Horace Walpole. Among them are manuscript copies of Aedes Walpolianae and the Mysterious Mother, as well as Walpole's Commonplace Books, Books of Materials, and Miscellany, and many books and examples of graphic art bearing annotations in his hand. Other manuscripts include significant holdings of personal and official diplomatic correspondence from eighteenth-century notables such as Sir Charles Hanbury-Williams and Edward Weston; letters to and from friends and relatives of Horace Walpole such as Anne Seymour Damer, Lady Diana Beauclerk, Agnes and Mary Berry, and the Clement family; and diaries and memoirs of Lady Mary Coke, Mme du Deffand, George Bubb Dodington, and the Rev. Dr. John Trusler. Although only a small portion of the collection has been cataloged in Orbis, the Yale University online catalog, the rest is accessible through a number of card indices at the Library in Farmington. Also included in the holdings are account and receipt books, bills and other documents of household and merchant establishments, as well as travel diaries and poems. Among the literary manuscripts is Louis XVI's autograph manuscript translation of Horace Walpole's Historic Doubts on the Reign of Richard III. The Library also holds a ten-volume collection of mostly Italian music manuscripts compiled by Thomas Gray. The provenance and scope of the manuscript collections are described in “The Manuscript Collections at the Lewis Walpole Library,” an article by Warren Hunting Smith assisted by Catherine Jestin and Karen V. Peltier, that appeared in the Yale University Library Gazette (56:3-4 [April 1982], 53-60).
Prints, Drawings, and Paintings
The Lewis Walpole Library houses a significant collection of fine and graphic arts. The prints and drawings make up one of the most important collections of eighteenth-century British visual satire anywhere and include many important works by William Henry Bunbury, George Woodward, James Gillray, and Thomas Rowlandson; it is the largest such collection outside the United Kingdom. The Library also holds the most complete collection of fine-impression prints by William Hogarth in the United States. The roughly 30,000 works on paper include over 10,000 caricatures and satirical prints, important holdings of drawings, and portrait and topographical prints. Portrait miniatures and oil paintings, many in fine examples of period frames, include Allan Ramsay’s portrait of Horace Walpole, portraits of members of his family and friends, and paintings of Strawberry Hill and Twickenham. Many prints, drawings, and paintings now in the Lewis Walpole Library once belonged to Horace Walpole and often include annotations in his own hand. For more information about the prints, drawings, and paintings in the collection please contact the curator: Cynthia Roman
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This file last modified: 01/04/08
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