The Sheridan Libraries

English and American Literature

Discover resources and research tools in English and American Literature

Special Collections at the Sheridan Libraries

Special Collections, located on M-level of the Brody Learning Commons, contains an exciting array of resources for you to use, including artist books, important editions, ephemera and amusements.  The collection also includes materials housed at the John Work Garrett Library and George Peabody  Library.

Search the library catalog for Special Collections materials.  See something you'd like to look at?  Certain books are requestable directly through the library website; simply click "request" and the book will be delivered to Special Collections.  To request books housed at either the John Work Garrett Library or George Peabody Library, or Special Collections material that is not requestable through the library catalog, contact Special Collections directly.

Interested in incorporating rare materials in a class session?  Feel free to get in touch with me!

Highlights from Special Collections

1676 Hamlet prompt-book showing annotations for an eighteenth-century performance.

Title page from a first edition copy of Frances Burney’s Cecilia, from 1782.  

Frontispiece and – adjacent – title page of The Life of Olaudah Equiano; a second edition from 1789. 

Title page and – adjacent – frontispiece of The Life of Olaudah Equiano; a second edition from 1789.                 

First monthly installment, from May 1849, of Dickens’ David Copperfield. Special Collections houses the complete serial run!

First appearance in print of F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous short story!

First edition of A Farewell to Arms (1929), with rare dust jacket. 

First edition of Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, also from 1929.           

Special Collections Showcase

  • Last Updated: Aug 7, 2023 2:18 PM
  • URL: https://guides.library.jhu.edu/english
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Subjects: Literature