Rare Books + Manuscripts 

Our collections cover the historical aspects of most disciplines, and we are eager to work with our faculty and graduate students to use our materials to support and enhance your teaching.

Holding a class in Rare Books and Manuscripts offers students a tangible experience of history in the classroom setting and adds exciting depth to almost any course.  All Hopkins students are welcome to make use of our materials for individual research, and in most cases, we can also make arrangements to support course-related research assignments.

Here's a sampling of classes that have used our materials:

• civil engineers examining Victorian iron-truss bridge structures at the Peabody Library;
• art historians poring over woodcuts by Durer and etchings by Piranesi;
  
•  American literature students tracing the design and textual variants in the first and subsequent editions of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass;
  
•  undergraduate students learning how to interpret handwriting in historical documents;
  
•  medievalists encountering illuminated manuscripts and printing from the era of Gutenberg;
•  high school history teachers studying freedom and slavery in the Atlantic world.

For more information about using our materials for your classes, please contact Earle Havens, Curator of Rare Books.

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Peabody Library

Rare Books

University Archives

Manuscripts