Collections of Interest

Cuneiform Inscriptions

Givens Collection of African American Literature

Sherlock Holmes

Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

Dahllöf Collection of Swedish Americana

Mertle Collection on the History of Photomechanics

Kann Collection of Austrian History and Culture

Kleiner Collection of Silent Movie Music

Laourdas Modern Greek Collection

All Collections

he Special Collections and Rare Books (SCRB) unit serves as the repository for University Libraries materials that require special protection because of their age, value or fragility. These holdings include clay tablets and papyri, medieval manuscripts, early printed books, miniature books, fine printing and fine bindings. In addition to rare books, the unit houses many special collections. Links to those collections are found on the left side of this screen.

On June 7, 2010 the Manuscripts Division and Special Collections/Rare Books merged to form a new unit -- Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. The new unit head is R. Arvid Nelsen. At some time in the near future, as part of the Libraries web site redesign process, the two unit web sites will be merged into a single web site. Until that time each unit will maintain separate web sites. Staff contact information is found on the left side of the screen. We look forward to serving you in this new and dynamic unit. Thank you for your patience as we work through this merger process.

Please note that Special Collections and Rare Book materials are housed in two locations. Most of the Rare Book Collection is housed in Wilson Library (4th floor) and serviced by the staff of the James Ford Bell Library. Other rare books and all of the Special Collections are housed in Andersen Library. All materials must be used on-site either in the reading room of the James Ford Bell Library (for rare books housed in Wilson) or in the Andersen Library reading room (for materials housed in Andersen). In using the online catalog, MNCAT, please pay special attention to the "Availability" location in the catalog record. This will tell you whether the desired material is housed in Wilson or Andersen Libraries.

Bill Moran and Kent Aldrich at the No. 2 Bobcat Press in Special Collections and Rare Books. The press was made by Richard Hicks, Cedar Crest, New Mexico for Governor Elmer L. Andersen and "his printing pleasure." Bill teaches Design 3010, "Travels in Typography" at the University of Minnesota. His class recently visited Special Collections to view a demonstration of the press by Kent and to have their own chance to ink type and pull a print.