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Brown University Library

The Brown University Library, in support of the University's educational and research mission, is the local repository for and the principal gateway to current information and the scholarly record. As such, it is simultaneously collection, connection, and classroom, primarily for the current and future students and faculty of the University, while also serving other colleagues in the University community and our regional, national, and global communities of learning and scholarship.

Subcollections (93)

  • Napoleonic Satires

    The Napoleonic satires housed in the Anne S. K. Brown Military collection of the John Hay Library represent several important gifts made to the library in the 20th century. In addition to the Napoleonic satires located in the military collection …

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  • Representations of Blackness in Music of the United States (1830-1920)

    This collection is a grouping of approximately 1,400 items dating from the 1830s to the 1920s. The contents of the collection depict representations of Black diasporic people and cultures through close to a century of illustrations and musical and lyrical …

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  • Alcohol, Temperance & Prohibition

    The digitized items in the Alcohol, Temperance and Prohibition Collection are from the Alcoholism and Addiction Studies Collection, as well as from various collections in the Brown University Library — broadsides, sheet music, pamphlets and government publications.

    The items have …

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  • Archives of the Ladd Observatory

    Materials from the archives of Ladd Observatory, including eclipse expedition scrapbooks, slides, and associated materials from Charles H. Smiley.
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  • Brown Olio

    A miscellany of Brown Library's collections.
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  • Carriers' Addresses

    Carriers' addresses were published by newspapers, usually on January 1, and distributed in the United States for more than two centuries. The custom originated in England and was introduced here during colonial times. The newsboys delivered these greetings in verse …
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  • FlatWeb

    Thomas Banchoff's collection of information about Edwin Abbott Abbott, the author of the Victorian novel Flatland. Including editions, letters and images of Abbott, a bibliography, essays. See also the "Thomas Banchoff collection of materials relating to Edwin Abbott Abbott …
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  • Garibaldi and the Risorgimento

    The Garibaldi / Risorgimento digital archive seeks to provide a comprehensive resource for the interdisciplinary study and teaching of the life and deeds of one of the protagonists of the Italian unification process (1807-1882), against the historical backdrop of 19th-century …
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  • Harris Broadsides

    Broadsides are single-sheet publications, often issued as ephemera or announcements. The Harris Broadsides Collection is a comprehensive collection of American poetry published in broadside format from colonial times to the present. The collection offers materials covering a broad spectrum of …
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  • Prints, Drawings and Watercolors from the Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection

    This vast digital collection of military artwork from the 16th through 20th centuries, vividly documents all aspects of military and naval history, with emphasis on the history and illustration of world military and naval uniforms from the 17th century to …
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  • Pembroke Center Oral History Collection

    This collection contains oral history interviews with alumnae of Brown University, which admitted its first women students in 1891. The Women's College at Brown was renamed Pembroke College in 1928, and in 1971, Pembroke College merged with the Men's College …
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  • Gorham Collection

    A collection of drawings, sketches, and digital objects pertaining to the design process used by the Gorham Manufacturing Company to create its hand-crafted consumer silver products. Featured are many objects from Gorham’s Martelé line, a product that was entirely handmade …
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  • Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923

    In August 1923, William Dana Reynolds, with his wife Vera Hunt Reynolds and their young daughter Helen embarked from Honolulu on the Japanese steamship Taiyo Maru, bound for Yokohama. While at sea, the ship experienced and survived a tsunami only …

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  • Haitian Studies Resources

    Digitized books, scores, pamphlets, maps, and letters selected from the Brown University Library's Haitian Studies holdings.
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  • Illustrated Quixote

    In the fall of 2005, the Brown University Library celebrated the 400th anniversary of the publication of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de La Mancha with an exhibit featuring book illustrations and title pages from the first edition of this …

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  • Images of Brown

    A collection of historical images of the University, serving as a visual record of Brown's campus life from its beginnings in the 1760s to the current day.
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  • Invested in Community

    Brown University's Department of Music hosted the first conference on Applied Ethnomusicology. Participants from Europe and the United States discussed various ways in which Ethnomusicologists work directly in and on behalf of communities outside of academia. This project provides streaming …
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  • Khrushchev Archive

    Color slides and video depicting Nikita Khrushchev & family (circa late-1960s to early-1970s).
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  • Lincoln Graphics

    Prints in the Lincoln collection are classified by Meserve numbers, and include most of the known photographic images of Lincoln, along with engravings and popular prints by, among other firms, Currier & Ives and Kurz & Allen. There are also …
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  • Lincoln Manuscripts

    The Hay Library’s famed collection of manuscripts authored or signed by Lincoln, now comprises nearly 1,100 pieces. This digital collection of the Brown University Library’s Lincoln manuscripts was created with the assistance of the Abraham Lincoln Papers Project, Daniel …
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  • Lincoln Objects

    Objects from the Lincoln Collection.
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  • Lincoln Sheet Music

    This database comprises sheet music from the McLellan Lincoln Collection at the Hay Library written between 1859 and 1923. Music about Lincoln ranges from popular song to compositions for orchestral performance. Popular music about Abraham Lincoln proliferated between 1859 and …
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  • Lincoln Broadsides

    Brown's Lincoln Broadsides collection comprises an assortment of printed materials intended for broad public distribution in a variety of formats. Within this digital collection you will find, for example: handbills (a single sheet of text intended for wide public distribution), …
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  • Minassian Collection of Persian, Mughal, and Indian Miniature Paintings

    Miniature paintings from the estate of Mrs. Adrienne Minassian. The paintings often include text from Persian and Indian tales. Many of the illustrations within the Minassian Collection are depictions of stories from the classical Persian text, Shahnama of Ferdowsi.

    The …

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  • Paris: Capital of the 19th Century

    The project, "Paris, Capital of the 19th century," initiated by the French Studies and Comparative Literature Departments of Brown University, provides a window into the cultural, political and social context of 19th century Parisian culture.

    It offers online access to …

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  • Sanborn Maps for the State of Rhode Island

    Collection of Sanborn Maps of Rhode Island.
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  • World War I Sheet Music

    The World War I digital sheet music collection is drawn from the Sheet Music Collection at the John Hay Library. It is composed of over 1,800 titles that relate in some way to the events of World War I, and …
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  • Yiddish Sheet Music

    The Yiddish language sheet music in this digital collection is part of the large Sheet Music Collection at the John Hay Library. The digital collection is composed of public domain (pre-1923) titles.
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  • James Koetting Ghana Field Recordings Collection

    The James Koetting Ghana Field Recordings collection presents a vibrant mix of traditional and popular music recorded at a broad range of locations and events in Ghana during the 1970s by ethnomusicologist James Koetting. Students and researchers can hear online …

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  • Brown Archival & Manuscript Collections Online

    A collection of digitized materials from Special Collections at the John Hay Library. Please visit the Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online (RIAMCO) for access to the finding aids collection. RIAMCO is the gateway to information about …
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  • Chronicles of Brunonia

    The "Chronicles of Brunonia" presents historical narratives of life at Brown University, inspired by the archival documents in John Hay Library and written by undergraduates. Most of the narratives here were written in creative nonfiction workshops taught by Beth Taylor …
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  • Cultural Correspondence

    A journal born from the collapse of the New Left and hopes for a new beginning of a social movement, but also of left-wing thinking about culture, Cultural Correspondence was in many ways a unique publication.

    Its founding editors, Paul …

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  • Modernist Journals Project

    A digital research collection focusing on Modernist journals and magazines, together with essays, introductions, and biographical sketches.

    The Modernist Journals Project publishes fully searchable online editions of the English-language journals and magazines that were important in shaping the modes of …

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  • Radical America

    A digital edition of Radical America, a product of the campus-based New Left of the late 1960s, specifically the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), but the magazine long outlived its seedbed. Its trajectory illustrates the effort to place an …
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  • Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice

    An archive of a wide array of historical documents, from the records of slaving voyages to student commencement orations, digitized in support of the work of the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. The collection contains over one hundred …
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  • Voyage of the Sally

    Documentary evidence of the first slave trading voyage sponsored by the Brown brothers of Providence, RI.This project arose from the work of the Brown University Committee on Slavery and Justice, led by James Campbell. The committee investigated the contributions that …

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  • Ciné-Tracts

    Digitized issues of Ciné-Tracts: A Journal of Film, Communication, Culture and Politics. Ciné-Tracts was founded in 1977 and edited by Ron Burnett until it ceased publication in late 1982. During that time, the journal published seventeen issues (1,247 pages). Ciné-Tracts …
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  • Perry in Japan: a visual history

    Materials for use in cross-cultural evaluation of Perry's encounter with the Japanese.
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  • Lincoln Envelopes

    This collection contains embellished envelopes created during the period surrounding Lincoln’s presidency and the time immediately after his assassination. Many of the envelopes depict Lincoln himself, as well as various notable political and military figures. The artwork widely ranges in …
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  • Rites and Reason Theatre

    Rites and Reason was founded in September 1970 by Professor George Houston Bass and became a formal component of the then Program in Afro-American Studies in 1975. It was born out of the Black Arts Movement and student protests at …
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  • Palestine: traveling in the Holy Land through the stereoscope

    Offered as an accompaniment to Jesse Lyman Hurlbut’s 1900 text “Traveling in the Holy Land through the Stereoscope”, the stereoscopic images collected here present Palestine just at the turn of the Twentieth-century. The images focus particularly on ancient ruins related …
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  • Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. related records of Jay Saunders Redding

    Digitized correspondence and speeches related to Redding's business with Alpha Phi Alpha. Redding was a member of the Alpha Gamma chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha in Providence, but these papers are from his later career and interactions with the fraternity …
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  • Community Organizer Archive

    Organized in 2006 by Brown alumni Jim Dickson (1968) and Ken Galdston (1968), and co-founded with the Swearer Center for Public Service, the Community Organizer Archive comprises collections of archival and manuscript papers of Brown alumni and students engaged in …
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  • Historical Maps and Coins of China

    This is a collection of distinctive and unusual historical scrolls, maps, and posters found in Brown University Rockefeller Library’s East Asian Collection. The collection includes the following:
    1. A set of undated historical maps produced in Taiwan, most likely created during …
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  • Mary Anne Atwood papers

    The Mary Anne Atwood Papers contains letters and manuscripts written by British spiritual writer Mary Anne Atwood between the years 1882-1910. Most of the letters in the collection are written from Atwood to Mme. Isabelle de Steiger, a contemporary artist …
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  • Brown University Library Staff Scholarly Works

    This collection contains publications and other scholarly works authored by Brown University Library staff.
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  • Minassian Collection of Quranic Manuscripts

    Collection of approximately 200 folders of Qur'anic leaves dating from the 8th century onward.
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  • Books at Brown

    Books at Brown was, from 1951 through 1998, the scholarly publication of the Friends of the Brown University Library. Published occasionally, issues of 'Books at Brown' included both informational overviews on the Library's specialized collections and original scholarship utilizing those …
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  • Mass Incarceration Lab collection

    The United States incarcerates the world’s largest prison population, caging, surveilling and supervising more people than any other nation. The Mass Incarceration Lab, supported by Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Brown University Library seeks to …

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  • Fernando Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts - Escritos

    This subgroup of the Fernardo Birri Archive of Multimedia Arts contains correspondence, manuscripts, poetry, essays, and screenplays created and collected by Argentinian filmmaker and artist, Fernando Birri. Several of Birri’s diaries are collected here as well.
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  • John J. Weir papers

    John J. Weir (1922-1977) grew up in the small seaside town of South Amboy, New Jersey. He became an avid reader of science fiction and horror in 1934 to escape the suffocating boredom of small town life. The John Weir …
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  • Rock50 Oral History Collection

    This collection contains oral history interviews with longtime members of the Brown University Library staff, in celebration of the Rockefeller’s Library’s fiftieth anniversary in 2014. The interviews were conducted by Brown librarians Carina Cournoyer and Karen Bouchard. Staff members represent …
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  • Martha Waldo Greene and Frederick Sherman Collection of Frederick Douglass papers

    The Martha Waldo Greene and Frederick Sherman Collection of Frederick Douglass papers contains a total of 26 items by and relating to Frederick Douglass (1818-1895): 19 letters and documents, 5 photographs, and 2 published books. Items span from 1845-1936, with …
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  • Johanna Fernández Collection

    This collection contains digitized content from the papers of Johanna Fernández, Brown University graduate, social justice advocate, scholar of 20th Century US history and the history of social movements at Baruch College, City University of New York, and author of …
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  • H. Adrian Smith Magic Objects Collection

    The Smith Magic Objects Collection consists of a number of objects pertaining to magic, collected by Smith over the course of his life. It includes memorabilia from other magicians, various awards and trophies, games, cards, magic tricks, and props for …
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  • Hubert Jennings papers

    The Hubert Jennings papers is an extensive collection of materials created or collected by Jennings in the course of his research on the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa focused particularly on the time Pessoa lived in Durban, South Africa. Jennings published …
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  • Nicholas Brown papers

    Nicholas Brown (1792-1859) was the U.S. Consul to Italy from 1846 to 1849. He was the eldest son of Nicholas Brown (1769-1841) for whom Brown University is named. This collection contains letters, poems, and autographs received by Nicholas Brown and …
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  • Danielle Perelman photographs of student protests at Brown University

    The Danielle Perelman photographs of student protests at Brown University contain digital photographs documenting five student-led protests taken while Perelman (class of 2017) was a student between 2015 and 2016. The demonstrations focused on standing in solidarity with Black students …
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  • Brown Daily Herald

    For more than 125 years, the Brown Daily Herald has captured life at Brown University: political protest, athletic wins and losses, curricular changes and students' initiative.
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  • Rider Broadsides

    The Sidney S. Rider Collection, the largest private collection of materials related to the history of Rhode Island, was purchased from Sidney Rider and presented to the library by Marsden Perry in 1903. Rider was a leading Providence bookseller, publisher …
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  • Jonathan Russell papers

    Appointed chargé d’affaires in Paris in 1810 by President Madison, Russell served as one of five U. S. negotiators for the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812. He subsequently served as United States Minister to Sweden and …
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  • Brown University Yearbooks

    The Brown University Library and Alumni Relations have digitized yearbooks from 1870 to 2007 for private research, study, and teaching.

    The Liber Brunensis (1870-present) documents important events from the year, as well as athletics, academics, and student organizations. The Brun …

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  • Dupee Mexican History Collection Broadsides

    The Dupee Collection offers nearly 200 broadsides published after the Mexican republic secured its independence in 1821. Chronicled within the broadsides are Mexican partisan politics, religious and anti-clerical debates, popular literature and drama, domestic revolutions and armed conflict with the …
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  • Brown University Publications

    The University Archives contains handbooks, course catalogs, commencement programs, yearbooks, faculty and department newsletters, student newspapers and magazines, and alumni magazines. This online collection contains a selection of digital publications; it is not a comprehensive list of University Archives' physical …
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  • Apostolado Positivista Brasileiro

    A collection of pamphlets published by the Positivist Church of Brazil. The pamphlets date from the late-19th to mid- 20th century and, with few exceptions, are written in Portuguese language by Miguel Lemos and Raimundo Teixeira Mendes, known as the …
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  • Kitāb al-Rūhiyāt = كتاب الروحيّات

    This is a volume containing 19 Arabic works on magic, Islamic occultism, and esoteric sciences (numerology, astrology, letter magic, talismans, magic squares, etc.), all published or probably published in Egypt or more specifically Cairo in approximately the first decade of …
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  • Brown University Archives Film and Video Collection

    Video recordings from a wide variety of events on the Brown University campus.
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  • Brown University Archives Audio Collection

    Audio recordings from a wide variety of events on the Brown University campus.
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  • Howard P. Lovecraft collection

    A collection of correspondence to and from Providence-based speculative fiction author, Howard P. Lovecraft. Also contained are many of his original manuscripts.
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  • Vietnam Veterans Archive

    The Vietnam Veterans Archive is a collection of oral histories, documents, photographs, memorabilia, and letters from veterans or family members. The project was initiated by David Taylor '66 and Beth Taylor, co-director of Brown’s Nonfiction Writing Program, to capture the …
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  • Freedom Now! an archival project of Tougaloo College and Brown University

    Freedom Now! contains documents from the archives at Tougaloo College and Brown University, gathered by students and faculty from both institutions. We believe that the Mississippi Freedom Movement remains one of the most inspiring and important example of grass-roots activism …
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  • Blondie Robinson collection of African-American Minstrel and Vaudeville photographs

    A collection of 77 vintage photographs, primarily from the early 20th century, the bulk of which is dated between the years 1915 and 1925, formerly owned by Blondie Robinson, an accomplished African-American vaudeville performer of that era. The heart of …
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  • Julie Adams Strandberg Collection: 50 Years of Dance at Brown University

    Julie Adams Strandberg began the Dance Program at Brown University in 1969 with a small group of enthusiastic students and a steadfast commitment to providing professional experiences in the liberal arts environment. This collection contains the programs and posters for …
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  • Rush Hawkins Collection

    This collection contains images of documents in the Rush Hawkins collection (Ms.2006.05) relating to the First Italian War of Independence. Annmary Brown Hawkins (1837-1903) was married to Rush Hawkins and she was the daughter of Nicholas Brown III (1792-1859). Nicholas …
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  • Imperial strategies for suppressing uprisings in seven provinces – in illustration = 钦定剿平七省方略图说

    Photographs (albumen prints) of text and illustrations of the Qing government suppression of rebellions in China in the 19th century.
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  • Digitizing Timbuktu

    The Brown University Library received a unique donation in 2014 from the Yattara family of Atlanta (by way of Timbuktu, Mali) of an enigmatic Arabic manuscript. After initial study this item, consisting of some 150+ folio pages contained in a …
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  • Henry Wheaton Family Papers

    Henry Wheaton (1785-1848) was a diplomat and authority on international law. He was born in Providence on November 27, 1785. This is a collection of 275 letters and manuscripts for the period 1786 to 1926. It is chiefly correspondence of …
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  • Center for Digital Scholarship

    The Center for Digital Scholarship (CDS), a cross-departmental group in the Brown University Library, supports digital scholarship for the Brown community and beyond by supporting scholarly and academic activities that are conducted or enhanced through the use of digital technology …
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  • Mumia Abu-Jamal collections at the John Hay Library (Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Portrait of Mass Incarceration Exhibition, 2023)

    This digital collection includes digitized items from the Mumia Abu-Jamal Papers, the Free Mumia Movement Collection, and various other items curated in the Mumia Abu-Jamal: A Portrait of Mass Incarceration exhibition at the John Hay Library (2023). Digital …

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  • Salmá al-Ḥaffār Kuzbarī papers

    Salmá al-Ḥaffār Kuzbarī (1923-2006), a Syrian scholar, feminist, writer, poet, and women ’s rights activist created this collection. Her writing and activism focused on the challenges of being a woman in the Arab world and draws from her own experiences. …
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  • Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice

    The Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice is a scholarly research center with a public humanities mission. Recognizing that racial and chattel slavery were central to the historical formation of the Americas and the modern …

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  • Stephen Mopope paintings of seven Native American subjects

    Stephen Mopope (1898-1974) was a Kiowa painter, dancer, and flute player of Spanish descent, from Oklahoma. He was the most prolific member of a group of Kiowa artists known as the Kiowa Five. This collection contains 7 gouache paintings that …
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  • Barbara Herrnstein Smith Collection

    This collection contains digitized content from the papers of Barbara Herrnstein Smith, Braxton Craven Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and English at Duke University, a feminist literary critic and theorist. Items include reformatted cassette tape recordings of course lectures given …
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  • Martha and Waitstill Sharp collection

    Brown alumna Martha Dickie Sharp (Pembroke 1926) and her husband Rev. Waitstill Sharp were co-founders of the Unitarian Service Committee during World War II. The collection documents their strenuous efforts throughout the course of the war to provide relief and …
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  • Anthropodermic Books

    The John Hay Library has four anthropodermic books. Testing in April 2015, confirmed the books are bound in human skin (or a closely related primate): Vesalius' De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Venice, 1568) Dance of Death (London, 1816) Dance of Death …
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  • Japanese LGBTQ+ Magazines

    Collection of magazines published in Japan by and for the LGBTQ+ communities. The collection currently consists of 25 periodicals published between 1952 to 2019. It includes several rare titles of members-only publications, community magazines for crossdressers as well as magazines …
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  • Carleton D. Morse Whaling Collection

    The Carleton D. Morse whaling collection contains correspondence, logbooks and accounts, seaman's journals, merchant's and owner's accounts, reports and legal documents, literary works, photographs and engravings, as well as newspaper clippings, research notes, ephemera and other printed materials pertaining to …
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  • The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda

    The Gordon Hall and Grace Hoag collection of dissenting and extremist printed propaganda focuses on printed organizational literature, often ephemeral, some for circulation among adherents and others used to proselytize. The collection consists largely of pamphlets and leaflets, with smaller …
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  • Cuban Slavery documents

    Documents including letters, certificates, and inventories relating to the institution of slavery, slaves, and indentured servants in Cuba dating from 1820-1892. Many of the documents refer to Chinese people brought to Cuba as indentured servants or contract laborers (colonos).
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  • Baldner's drawings of Vogel-, Fisch- und Thierbuch

    This collection contains digital images of one of 6 documented manuscript copies of the work by Leonhardt Baldner generally known as "Vogel-, Fisch- und Thierbuch", a collection of watercolor drawings (totaling 115 in the present copy) made from specimens of …
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  • Drowne Family papers

    The Drowne family papers encompass the correspondence and documents of several generations of an old and distinguished Rhode Island family, with the bulk of the materials consisting of writings and other materials pertaining to the life of Solomon Drowne, M.D. …
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  • Brown Alumni Magazine (BAM)

    The Brown Alumni Magazine (BAM) is a bimonthly publication of the Office of University Communications. The BAM publishes news of interest to its alumni audience, with a particular focus on exceptional accomplishments through stories that demonstrate how a Brown education …

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