Special Collections libraries collect, preserve, archive, and provide guarded access to rare, valuable, and unique materials. These materials can range widely and can include first or unusual editions of monographs; manuscripts; incunabulae (books printed in the 15th century); photographs; maps; realia (objects rather than printed or photographic material); materials focusing on a particular subject or historical era; or archival documents for an institution, organization, or individual.
This category is for the web sites of Special Collections libraries.
Collection includes books on literature, philosophy, history, art, economics, and science, many of which contain handwritten annotations by Mr. Siegel (1902-1978). The Collection is open by appointment to persons seriously studying Aesthetic Realism. http://www.EliSiegelCollection.net/
Located in London, England, the archive was established to preserve the record of a family that was widely recognized for contributions to the economic, political, and social history of many countries throughout the world. http://www.rothschildarchive.org
Collection of rare books and manuscripts and numerous special-interest collections centered around particular persons or topics of interest to scholars. Located at Arizona State University. http://www.asu.edu/lib/speccoll/
Collection includes many rare and fragile works including pre-18th John Bunyan, 18th century English poetry and plays, and Victorian and Edwardian Children's Fiction. Access restrictions apply. http://www.library.ualberta.ca/specialcollections/index.cfm
Collection houses rare research materials, children's literature, historic maps and photographs, a special section on the history of Chinese immigrants to Canada. http://www.library.ubc.ca/spcoll/
Includes four core collections: the History of Science Collection, The Fine and Theater Arts Collection, the British and American Authors Collection, and The Art of the Book. Located at the University of Arizona Library in Phoenix, Arizona. http://dizzy.library.arizona.edu/branches/spc/homepage/scrarebk.html
Over 16,000 volumes predominately in English and Spanish, dating from the fifteenth century. The majority of materials were published in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Catalog available online. Collection may be consulted by appointment only at http://www.lapl.org/central/rare_books.html
Archive of San Francisco State University, the library also contains source materials relating San Francisco Bay area history, and the Marguerite Archer Collection of Historic Children's Materials. http://www.library.sfsu.edu/special/archives1.html
A collection held at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) containing Chinese books, manuscripts, and operas collected by Dr. Robert Morrison between 1807 and 1824. http://uk.geocities.com/Morrison1782/
A local history collection of the four counties of Long Island. Includes specialized publications from current and past publishers, family manuscripts, historical maps and atlases, and turn of the 20th century photographs. http://www.queenslibrary.org/central/longisland/index.asp
Public and private records on the history of Guelph, Ontario, Canada featuring a guide for genealogists, finding aids, and a searchable photograph database. http://www.library.guelph.on.ca/localhistory/
Features one of the few original, remaining Gutenberg Bibles, a sunken sculpture garden and translucent marble "windows." Located on the campus of Yale University. http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/
Collections of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, works distinguished for their illustrations, bindings, or fine printing, several distinguished subject collections, and University Archives. Restrictions on access apply. http://www.lib.uci.edu/libraries/collections/special/special.html
Located in the home of Ida McKinley in Canton, Ohio, this library includes biographies, photos, oral histories, and other materials about U.S. First Ladies. http://www.firstladies.org/
Houses rare books and manuscripts including the papers of Sen. Wayne Morse, children's literature, documentation of women in society, missionaries, feminist and lesbian periodicals, Oregon trail diaries, and architectural materials. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/speccoll/
Collection of scores, sheet music, scripts, original cast recordings, programs, photographs, and theatre memorabilia in a facility located in East Haddam, Connecticut. http://www.goodspeed.org/library/
Contains works of literature, performing arts, and histories of crime, labor, and printing dating back to the 1800's. http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/
Collection built by the British Federation of Women Graduates includes material relating to women's writing and history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women's education, biographies, and women in wartime. http://pages.britishlibrary.net/scl/
An in-depth collection of interdisciplinary research books, articles, and audiovisual materials on the history of marriage. http://www.intams.org/library/index.php
A project to recover, restore, preserve and exhibit historical newspapers from all over the world. The emphasis is to collect newspapers published in the city or country where the event took place. http://www.josepbosch.net/
Collection has particular strengths in modern Greek and Byzantine studies, Portuguese studies, voyages and travels, theology, literature, medicine and science. Some materials have restricted access. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/iss/library/speccoll/
Housed at the University of Wyoming, Laramie, the collection specializes in the history and literature of America (particularly the West), the history and literature of the British Isles and Europe, world-wide travel and exploration, fishing, hunting, and http://ahc.uwyo.edu/about/departments/toppan.htm
American and British children's books dating from 1530 to the present housed at the University of Southern Mississippi McCain Library. http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/
Presents the history and a collection of rare items related to the 1908 fleet of battleships called the Great White Fleet. http://www.greatwhitefleet.info
Contains children's literature collections available for research use at the University of Minnesota Elmer L. Anderson Library, including Kerlan, Hess, Treasure Island, Oz, and Paul Bunyan. http://special.lib.umn.edu/clrc/
Collection contains manuscripts, photographs, performing arts materials, and rare books in divinity, history of religion and Methodism, history of fine paper and printing, significant Mark Twain editions, a collection of 18th and 19th-century accounts by http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/speccol/collections.shtml
Historical collection including a collection of letters, documents, and early printings of the Declaration of Independence. http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/
Collections include Los Angeles regional history, American literature, Lion Feuchtwanger and the German emigre experience, natural history, and university history. http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/collections/
Special collections department houses several unique collections ranging from religion to politics. Works date from the 13th-20th centuries. http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/index.html
Collection of books and art about the Irish famine, including digitized handwritten pages from the Board of Guardians meetings in Killarney. http://www.thegreathunger.org
A variety of collections including an assortment of ancient papyri dating to 300 BC. Papyri topics include Biblical fragments, religious writings, public and private documents, private letters, astronomical, astrological, mathematical, and magical texts. http://www.lib.umich.edu/spec-coll/
