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Brown University Library Collections

History (Non-United States) Collections

Ames (Robert S. and Margaret A.)
The Robert S. and Margaret A. Ames Collection was assembled over a thirty year period and built around three distinct but related ideas; the history of illustration, particularly nineteenth century books illustrated with woodcuts, wood or steel engravings or by lithography; the literature of travel and exploration, with a preference given to the North American continent; and pictorial representations of areas in which the Ames family lived before their arrival in Providence in 1970. The Ames Collection is notable for the degree to which it adds new titles to the Brown Library, the extent to which it complements other Brown holdings both in the John Hay Library and in Government Documents, and for its superb physical condition. ...more information
Anne S.K. Brown Military
The Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection is the foremost American collection of material devoted to the history and iconography of soldiers and soldiering, and is one of the world's largest collections devoted to the study of military and naval uniforms. It was formed over a period of forty years by the late Mrs. John Nicholas Brown (1906-1985) of Providence and is still growing. It contains approximately 12,000 printed books, 18,000 albums, sketchbooks, scrapbooks and portfolios, (containing thousands of prints and drawings), and over 13,000 individual prints, drawings and water-colors as well as a collection of 5,000 miniature lead soldiers.

Formerly in the Brown family residence (the Nightingale-Brown House, 1791), the entire collection (which was probably the largest private military collection in the world), was presented to Brown University and transferred to Special Collections located in the John Hay Library in 1982. ...more information
Annmary Brown Memorial
In 1948, Brown University assumed ownership of the Annmary Brown Memorial. The Memorial, built by Civil War General Rush C. Hawkins and named in honor of his wife, contained an internationally known incunabula collection as well as old master paintings and drawings, Revolutionary and Civil War manuscripts and documents, plus the personal correspondence of its founder. These incunabula along with others in Special Collections make up one of the largest collections of 15th-century printed books owned by an American university. In addition to incunables, the collection contains sizeable manuscript holdings relating to the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and to the 17th-century New England witchcraft phenomenon. There are also some medieval manuscript books and documents, including papal letters. The books and manuscripts are now kept in the John Hay Library. ...more information
Barlow (Tani E.)
This collection consists of the personal and professional papers of Tani E. Barlow, the George and Nancy Rupp Professor of Humanities and Director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University. The collection documents Barlow's personal life and academic career and research interests of feminism, postcoloniality, and women's history in Asia, specifically in China. ...more information
Brickman (William W.)
Pre-Holocaust and World War II German books, pamphlets, posters, photograhs and artifacts collected by Professor Brickman (1912 - 1986) who was active with the military during World War II, served as historian with the Air Force,attended the military intelligence training center and worked as an instructor in German. Brickman researched and wrote extensively about the history of the educational systems on both sides of the Atlantic. ...more information
Brown (Anne Seddon Kinsolving)
Personal papers of Anne Seddon Kinsolving Brown (1906-1985) who was one of the foremost authorities on military iconography. The collection includes her professional, family and personal correspondence, along with household records and materials that document her professional activities as a journalist, writer, and collector of military books, prints and museum objects. ...more information
Brown University Archives - World War I Correspondence
Letters from Brown University alumni and students in the armed services, written to persons at the University including President William H. P. Faunce, Assistant to the President, Thomas B. Appleget, Professor James Quayle Dealey, and Dean Otis E. Randall. ...more information
Bullard Napoleon
This collection, given by Paul Revere Bullard (Brown Class of 1897), constitutes one of the largest collections of caricatures of Napoleon in the United States, and represents the work of English, French, German Russian, and Spanish artists; almost all the cartoons are hostile to their subject. The Bullard Collection complements similar holdings in the Anne S. K. Brown Collection, and is rivalled only by collections in the British Museum and the Bibliotheque Nationale. ...more information
Cooke (Miriam)
This collection contains the professional papers of Miriam Cooke, scholar of Islamic feminism and gender and war in modern Arabic literature, and Braxton Craven Professor of Arab Cultures at Duke University. Materials include correspondence, conference materials, teaching materials, and draft writings dating from 1966 to 2017. ...more information
Davenport
The Davenport Collection, an endowed gift from Dr. James Henry Davenport, containing "books on medical history, medical biography and extra-curricular writings of physicians." It is these extra-curricular writings that give the collection its eclectic flavor. Included are books by physician authors in the fields of history, biography, travel narratives,fiction, poetry and drama, as well as many other works from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (London, 1892) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to Oliver Wendell Holmes's The Poet at the Breakfast-Table(Boston,1872). Part of the Rhode Island Medical Society Collection. ...more information
Dreyfus Affair Periodicals
The weekend supplements of these popular English, French, and Italian newspapers feature large, usually colored illustrations accompanied by short commentaries of the events surrounding the trials and imprisonment of Alfred Dreyfus and �mile Zola's involvement in his cause. ...more information
Grotius
One of the best collections in this country of Grotius' De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625), a foundation work in the science of international law. Most of the 79 complete editions of the work known to have been published between 1625 and 1939 are held in the collection. Interfiled with Hay Star and Cutter. ...more information
Hamilton (Mary) Letters
The Mary Hamilton letters contain fourteen letters to or about Mary Hamilton, covering a period of two decades, from 1905 to 1926. Within this group are letters from George Bernard Shaw, Harley Granville-Barker, J.E. Vedrenne, John Galsworthy, Algernon Blackwood, Lena Ashwell, and David Belasco. The seven letters from G.B. Shaw provide great insight into Shaw�s own philosophies and the workings of early 20th century American and British theatre. Associated with the November 2, 1908 letter from G.B. Shaw is a photograph of him with his signature on the back. Letters from the others also offer much information about how theatres were managed and directed, actresses were chosen and playwrights collaborated. ...more information
Herlihy (David)
These papers represent the intellectual and professional corpus of medieval historian, and Brown University professor, David Herlihy. Herlihy is considered a pioneer in the use of computers to analyze historical data to extrapolate socioeconomic trends and their impact on life during the middle ages. The collection includes Herlihy's research notebooks, notes, computer code books, pre-published and un-published drafts of articles and monographs, his Ph.D. dissertation, reviews of his publications, lecture notes and teaching materials, professional correspondence, papers documenting professional activities, speeches and addresses, photographs, and miscellaneous personal ephemera and papers. ...more information
Hinrichs (Albert Ford)
This collection consists primarily of letters describing the USSR in 1930 and 1932 as it appeared to an American economist. Also included is miscellaneous biographical information relating to the author. ...more information
Hirsch (David H.)
The David H. Hirsch papers (1826-2000; bulk, 1961-1999) include correspondence, essays, manuscripts, translated materials, research and lecture notes, course syllabi, annotated critical material, financial documents, conference proceedings, committee agendas, notebooks, and photographs. These materials relate primarily to his tenure as Professor of English at Brown University. The collection reflects his extensive research and writing in literature and literary theory, particularly on Herman Melville and Edgar Allen Poe. He also immersed himself in Holocaust literature and interpretation with emphasis on the memoirs, poetry, and songs created by individuals who experienced it. A portion of the collection contains the fiction of his son, Joe Hirsch. ...more information
Hitler

The bulk of Adolf Hitler's library (approximately 1,200 titles) is in the Third Reich Collection at the Library of Congress.

Brown University Library has 99 titles that are connected to locations where Adolf Hitler lived or worked.

Leonard Hitler Collection (1945) Quentin B. Leonard, Class of 1944, mailed 2 magazines to Prof. Raymond Archibald. The letter Mr. Leonard included with the package is dated 13 August 1945 and reads, "On Saturday afternoon I mailed to you a folder containing a couple of magazines printed in German. These magazines came from one of the buildings at Hitler's Berchtesgaden residence. I picked them from the rubble when I visited there last May. They are totally worthless, except for their souvenir value."

Aronson Hitler Collection (1986) The 80 books in this collection were retrieved by Colonel Albert Aronson from Hitler's bunker in May of 1945. They were donated to Brown in 1986.

Smyth Hitler Collection (January 2020) From a collection of books retrieved from Adolf Hitler's Munich apartment in 1945 by Lieut. Craig Hugh Smyth. The books were donated to the John Hay Library by sculptor Ned Smyth in 2020.
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John Hay (1838-1905)
The John Hay collection documents the life of John Milton Hay (1838-1905), Brown Class of 1858, and consists of three major components: A collection of books, Hay's personal papers, and Hay's desk.

The John Hay book collection comprises approximately 2,000 books by or about Hay and his period. Much of this material was given by members of the Hay family.

The John Hay Papers consists of over 9,100 items encompassing Hay's correspondence with his family and with literary, diplomatic, and political contemporaries; diaries kept by Hay as Lincoln's White House aide and as Secretary of the Legations in Paris, Vienna, and Madrid, 1866-1870; manuscript poems; galley proofs; personal letterpress copy books. Subjects include: Civil War; Lincoln and his administration; Reconstruction; court life in Paris; the bi-metal monetary standard; the Canadian boundary settlement; the fur seal question; Japanese naval activity; Chinese-American relations; the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars; British and American politics. A microform copy exists of this material.

The desk used by John Hay is a partner desk with space for 2 people to work opposite each other. It was a gift to the Brown University Library by Betsey Cushing Roosevelt Whitney (Mrs. John Hay Whitney). Her husband, John Hay's grandson, had inherited the desk and used it as his own. The John Hay desk is on view in the Bruhn Room (2nd floor) at the John Hay Library (as of August 2024). ...more information
Koo (Kim) Korean
It includes over 1,800 volumes (mostly Korean language materials with some English books) of rich and comprehensive literature on Korean history, ranging from the ancient period to the contemporary foundation and democratization of the nation state of South Korea. The collection particularly focuses on the primary and secondary sources of the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945), illustrating a complex political tension during the period, of various ideologies, geographies, and individuals. The collection was made possible by a gift of the Kim Koo Foundation in 2009. Open to the public, it is now housed in the East Asian Collection at the Rockefeller Library and the Kim Koo Library at the Watsons Institute for International and Public Affairs. ...more information
Korff (Baruch)
Personal papers of Providence rabbi and Jewish communal activist who became known as "Nixon's Rabbi" for his defense of the President during the Watergate affair. The collection includes materials pertaining to Korff's efforts on behalf of European Jewry during World War II, through the creation of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, as well as his post-war advocacy for the State of Israel. ...more information
Lord (Augustus Mendon)
The Augustus Mendon Lord collection includes correspondence, documents, and autographs of prominent figures from the period 1778 through 1908. The bulk of the correspondence pertains to American politicians, particularly members of Congress, and dates from 1876 through 1908. However, the collection also contains autographs and documents from American and European military, scientific, literary, and artistic figures. ...more information
Machiavelli
The Niccolo Machiavelli Collection is a major collection of first and early editions, dating from 1523, with an emphasis upon his political and historical works. Acquired by purchase in 1990. Interfiled with LC Starred Books. ...more information
Mazansky Swords
The Cyril and Harriet Mazansky British Sword Collection was given to Brown University in 1999. The Collection consists of approximately 100 British swords as well as a sizeable group of miniature military figures, a collection of books on arms and armor, and a series of watercolors by the Scottish-South African artist Andy May. ...more information
Metcalf
An extraordinarily diverse collection of pamphlets donated by the Hon. Theron Metcalf, Class of 1805. It is the Library's principal collection of American, English and Irish pamphlet literature of the 17th through the 19th centuries.

A distinguished jurist and author on legal subjects, Metcalf was an avid collector of pamphlet literature. He added periodically to the collection after giving it to Brown and, at his death in 1875, it included well over 10,000 items.

The collection includes ordination, election-day and dedicatory sermons, Fourth of July orations, plus pamphlets on the Civil War and slavery, the Irish question, Mormonism, agriculture, medicine and women's suffrage to name but a few categories. Pamphlets were bound into thematic volumes, and the call numbers represent the individual volumes. ...more information
Napoleon
The William Henry Hoffman collection on Napoleon I, donated in 1924 by Hoffman's widow, contains over 100 manuscripts pertaining to the First French Republic and the Napoleonic era, many of which are signed by the Emperor, and 400 rare books, prints, art objects and examples of fine bindings. It still occupies its own room on the John Hay Library's top floor.
Annotated guide to collection in RS filing cabinet. ...more information
Ogden (Peggy)
This collection consists of the personal papers of Peggy Ogden, Pembroke College class of 1953, and primarily document the Stephen A. Ogden Jr. '60 Memorial Lecture Series at Brown University named posthumously after her brother. Materials include Peggy Ogden's diplomas and family photos as well as correspondence and DVDs related to the lecture series. The collection dates from 1949-2018. ...more information
Orkney Islands
A collection of more than 150 volumes on the history, culture, archaeology, and literature of the Orkney Islands (Scotland), compiled and donated to the Brown University Library by W. Easton Louttit, jr. A title list may be viewed by doing an "author" search for "Orkney Collection" in JOSIAH. ...more information
Palmer (Alison)
Alison Palmer (Brown University Class of 1953) served in the United States Foreign Service (1959-1981) in Belgian Congo, Ethiopia, and Vietnam. Palmer successfully pursued two sex discrimination lawsuits against the State Department, winning in 1974 and 1987. After her retirement from the State Department in 1981, Palmer became the thirteenth woman Episcopal priest ordained in the United States. The Alison Palmer papers are chiefly related to her two lawsuits but also contain materials that document her foreign service career, and family papers. ...more information
Parsons (Usher)
Usher Parsons (1788-1868) was a professor of anatomy and surgery in Brown University's early medical school. Parson's medical experience is legendary in the annals of military surgery as he was the only surgeon at the Battle of Lake Erie on September 10, 1813. The collections cintains diaries (1831-1866), surgical notes, travel journals, and account books. ...more information
Rodney (Thomas)
Personal papers and records of Thomas Rodney, including letters, essays, notes on court cases in Mississippi and Delaware (1791 to 1810), a journal about personal matters and Delaware politics (1792-1800), and manuscript poetry. ...more information
Roelker (Nancy Lyman)
The Nancy Lyman Roelker papers include research notes, photocopies, manuscripts, publications, letters, and teaching materials from her classes at Tufts University, Boston University and Brown University. Also included are juvenilia and memorabilia from her secondary school teaching career. Roelker's field was sixteenth century France and her subjects included Henry of Navarre and Jeanne d'Albret, as well as sixteenth century French noblewomen and French Huguenots. The material dates from 1929 to 1993, with the bulk of it from 1963 to 1985. ...more information
Russell (Jonathan)
The papers of merchant, diplomat, and Massachusetts Congressman Jonathan Russell, Class of 1791, provide information on an early critical period of American politics and diplomacy. Included are records, notes, and correspondence for the period 1795-1830, during which Russell was a member of the United States Commission to draw up the Treaty of Ghent following the War of 1812, and later, Minister to Sweden and Norway. There are also several hundred letters from Russell to President James Monroe, and 22 from Monroe concerning commercial and diplomatic relations between the United States and Europe. Some 120 letters which Russell exchanged with John Quincy Adams span the years 1798 to 1823. ...more information
Schirmer (Daniel B.)
Daniel Boone Schirmer was an activist author, scholar and historian who devoted his life to human rights, social justice, anti-fascism, anti-imperialism and Philippine solidarity work. This collection contains materials used during Schirmer's research on the history of the Philippines and the writing of his book "Republic or empire : American resistance to the Philippine war" which was published in 1972. The collection includes 3 reel-to-reel audio tapes; 4 posters; 1 broadside; 2 photographs; and copies of articles from books and periodicals. ...more information
Sharp (Martha and Waitstill)
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 assistance to thousands of refugees in Czechoslovakia and France, under the most dangerous and difficult of circumstances. ...more information
Swan Antarctic

Collection of materials, primarily books in English, relating to the exploration of Antarctica. The collection is concentrated on the period from the turn of the 20th century to the early 1960s. It includes more than 200 books, all but a handful in English, on the expeditions of Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen, and others, as well as later exploratory and scientific expeditions and facilities. Also included are a small number of minor manuscripts (uncataloged as of May 2002) as well as 2 boxes of press releases of the National Science Foundation and U.S. Naval Support Force, Antarctica, and Operation Deep Freeze, and 2 boxes of U.S. Navy official Antarctic photographs, and a souvenir photo book that belonged to Swan.

The title list can be viewed by doing a "word" search in BruKnow for "Swan Antarctic"
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Thatcher (Henry Knox)
The Henry Knox Thatcher papers comprise three journals kept by Thatcher while he was on active duty as an officer of the U.S. Navy between 1839 and 1863, and cover his service on board the U.S.S. Brandywine (1839-1841), the U.S.S. Jamestown (1847-1849), the U.S.S. Shore Ship Relief (1851-1852) and the U.S.S. Constellation (1862-1863). The collection also includes Thatcher's naval commissions, a pamphlet that details his naval service, Thatcher's military insignia (including dress sword, admiral's hat and epaulets), and an 1862 painting of the Constellation by Italian artist Tomaso de Simone.
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Toulouse Family correspondence
This collection is one bound volume of letters written by brothers Eugene and Jean Toulouse to their brother Emile Toulouse regarding their experiences in the French military during World War I. There are also a few letters written to Emile by friends and cousins. Emile served as a Firefighter in Paris. Eugene served with the Infantry and Jean served with the Artillery and then trained as an Electrician. The volume contains about 1,000 items. The correspondence dates from January 3, 1916 to November 17, 1917. It also contains a sheet of dried flowers collected by Eugene in the trenches during March - July 1915. The volume is a homemade scrapbook style volume. Thin strips of paper are gathered into signatures. Each piece of correspondence was then pasted to the strip of paper along one edge. The covers are made of paperboard and cloth and covered with blue paper reminiscent of the color of the French uniforms called "bleu horizon." ...more information
Turner (William Mason)
Contains personal correspondence, legal documents, poetry, photographs, and sketches of William Mason Turner, a graduate of Brown University (1855), physician, Confederate surgeon, traveler and author. ...more information
Walkowitz (Judith R.)
This collection consists of the professional papers and research materials of Judith R. Walkowitz, scholar of British and women's history and Professor Emerita of Modern European Cultural and Social History at John Hopkins University. The collection documents Walkowitz's writing and research interests of British nineteenth-century political culture and the cultural and social contests over sexuality. ...more information
Wheaton (Henry)
Henry Wheaton, Class of 1802, jurist, served as United States Charge d'Affaires to Denmark, and Minister to Prussia. This collection of 275 letters and manuscripts consists chiefly of the correspondence of Wheaton and his family in Europe and America and concerns personal, diplomatic, legal, and political affairs, especially during the War of 1812. Wheatons's diaries, 1827-1835, an 1835 diary kept by his daughter Abby, and biographical notes about Wheaton and his uncle, Dr. Levi Wheaton, Professor of Medicine at Brown, are also among these papers. ...more information
Wheaton International Law

The Wheaton Collection on International Law, established and developed by William V. Kellen, Class of 1872 and George Grafton Wilson, a faculty member at Brown. The collection, named in honor of Henry Wheaton, Class of 1802, a major figure in the field of international law, and author of Elements of International law. The collection, now including over 4,000 volumes holds many important books, particularly early editions of Grotius and Pufendorf. It also includes an unusually complete collection of general treatises on international law in English and foreign languages; fairly complete documentations for international arbitrations, the League of Nations, and the Permanent Court of International Justice; complete files of the more important international law periodicals for the 19th and early 20th centuries; a large collection of diplomatic pamphlets, and many volumes of diplomatic law and diplomatic correspondence.

At the time of creation, this collection was shelved together in the John Hay Library. The collection was interfiled with other books on the topic of law within Special Collections in 1970. The Library does not have a list of which books comprised the Wheaton Collection on International Law.
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Image Source: "New consular waltz", Bullard Collection of Napoleonic Caricatures. View Image and Description

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