Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library
Source: https://beinecke.library.yale.edu/collections/recent-acquisitions Parent: https://beinecke.library.yale.edu
Recent Acquisitions
Occasional posts and news stories about selected recent acquisitions. The Beinecke Library’s annual reports include more of each year’s recent acquistions, briefly noted, and researchers are encouraged to search the library’s collections to explore the full range of materials, both longstanding and newly acquired.
September 7, 2023
The Irving S. Gilmore Music Library partnered with the Tri-Centric Foundation to digitally preserve and provide online access to a treasure trove of rare archival material: 751 audio and video recordings by Anthony Braxton, one of the most prominent and ground-breaking composers and musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. “This is perhaps the most notable collection of Anthony Braxton’s recordings anywhere in the world,” said Jonathan Manton, director of digital special collections and access at Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. “Thanks to the efforts of Digital Special Collections and Access staff members Christy Bailey-Tomecek, librarian for AV Access Services, and Tracy MacMath, manager of Digital Accessibility and Design, this collection is now available online for teaching, learning, and research both here at Yale, and across the world.” - ## At Beinecke, papers of Cynthia Ozick now open for ‘delighted discovery’
August 16, 2023
The archives of renowned writer Cynthia Ozick are now open to researchers at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. - ## Simon of Trent in Print
February 19, 2022
Famous image of the torture of Simon of Trent by Jews from the Nuremberg Chronicle. Beinecke Library has very strong collection of printed materials relating to the cult of Simon of Trent and the accusation of ritual murder. - ## Yale’s Beinecke Library Acquired 200+ Prints by Legendary Photographer Gordon Parks (Culture Type)
November 20, 2021
AN IMPORTANT REPOSITORY of images, books, and materials documenting African American history and culture, the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University announced the addition of more than 200 photographs by Gordon Parks to its collection. The prints were acquired directly from The Gordon Parks Foundation and include selections from 11 of the legendary photographer’s most poignant and prized series capturing African American life. - ## Beinecke library acquires works by Gordon Parks, the first Black photographer at LIFE magazine (Yale Daily News)
November 19, 2021
Over 200 prints by renowned Black photographer Gordon Parks now lie in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s collections. The prints, which constitute one of the largest collections of his work available for study, were directly acquired from The Gordon Parks Foundation. - ## Trove of Gordon Parks “Study Sets” Comes to Yale Library
November 9, 2021
Yale University Library’s Beinecke Library has acquired a collection of more than 200 prints by renowned American photographer Gordon Parks. The prints, acquired directly from The Gordon Parks Foundation, constitute one of the largest collections of the photographer’s work available for study in an institution. - ## A Dialog on Werewolfism
October 18, 2021
The Beinecke Library has purchased a helpful manual on Werewolfism in time for Halloween. Useful for defending against any accusation of Werewolfism and shapeshifting in general, which are theologically impossible because the Bible states that God created humans in a perfect state and would not allow that image to by deformed by satanic manipulation. - ## Fragment Donated in Honor of Toshiyuki Takamiya
August 30, 2021
Barbara Shailor, former director of the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, donated a fragment in honor of Toshiyuki Takamiya. The fragment is from the same manuscript as Takamiya MS 91, a twelfth-century manuscript of Rufinus. - ## Rewriting History by Fabiola Jean-Louis
April 28, 2021
The Beinecke Library has acquired a complete set of Fabiola Jean-Louis's photographic print series, Rewriting History - ## New Acquisition: Philip Morin Freneau annotated books and portrait, 1732-1815
January 31, 2021
The Yale Collection of American Literature has acquired an important collection of annotated books related to Philip Morin Freneau - ## Beinecke Library 2019-2020 Annual Report
October 9, 2020
The Beinecke Library 2019-2020 Annual Report, including stories, statistics, and selected recent acquisitions, can be read and downloaded here: Beinecke... - ## Treasure Trove Of Frederick Douglass Artifacts, Including Family Letters, Comes To Yale (WBUR)
July 28, 2020
One of the most extraordinary Americans in history is getting a new spotlight. - ## The Older Frederick Douglass Revealed In Yale's Newly Acquired Collection Of Family Scrapbooks (WNPR)
July 13, 2020
Yale historian David Blight says when he first saw a collection of family scrapbooks of the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, he was astonished. Blight had been fascinated by Frederick Douglass all of his life. He’d written a book and edited autobiographies about the escaped slave who became the greatest orator of his day. But the scrapbooks offered new insights into Douglass’ life and eventually inspired Blight’s 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. The materials belonged to a collector, Dr. Walter Evans, and have recently been acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Library. Connecticut Public Radio’s Morning Edition host, Diane Orson, spoke with David Blight. - ## Yale Library To Release Large Collection Of Materials From Frederick Douglass (NPR Morning Edition)
July 9, 2020
The Beinecke Library of Yale University will make public the largest known collection of material related to Frederick Douglass, including scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and letters. - ## Frederick Douglass, Seen Up Close (New York Times)
July 3, 2020
Yale has acquired a renowned private collection relating to the abolitionist and orator, including rarely seen family scrapbooks that offer a window onto his complicated private life. - ## Bringing Georgia O’Keeffe To Life, One Recipe At A Time (The Sporkful)
April 6, 2020 - ## Beinecke Library Acquires Important O’Keeffe Manuscripts to Add to Collections
March 5, 2020
Update: finding aid to the this acquisition of Georgia O’Keeffe Writings and Other Papers now online . The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library... - ## NEVER TOO LATE RACHEL CHURNER ON THE LATE STYLE OF EILEEN MYLES AND YVONNE RAINER (Artforum)
February 26, 2020
LAST FALL, at the New School in New York, poet Eileen Myles presented an essay they’d written on the acquisition of their archives by Yale University’s Beinecke Library ... - ## Never Too Late: Rachel Churner on the Late Style of Eileen Myles and Yvonne Rainer (Artforum, note: paywall)
February 1, 2020
LAST FALL, at the New School in New York, poet Eileen Myles presented an essay they’d written on the acquisition of their archives by Yale University’s Beinecke Library. Having sold 108 linear feet of personal notebooks, drafts, computer files, and trinkets—what the archivists dryly called “mixed materials”—and aware that all would soon be available to the grubby hands of the public, Myles noted, “It was a little like being buried alive.” - ## Delighting in Forged Bindings: Icilio Federico Joni
January 27, 2020
Recently purchased bindings were twentieth century fakes purported to be medieval Sienese originals. The Beinecke collects fakes and forgeries to document how these materials were created, promoted, and ultimately discovered. - ## OPEN FOR RESEARCH Mildred Aldrich Books
January 27, 2020
a collection of books by Aldrich and others from the library of Clara Smith Steichen - ## Rachel Blau DuPlessis Papers
January 23, 2020
The Beinecke Library is pleased to announce a newly acquired collection: the papers of Rachel Blau DuPlessis. DuPlessis is a contemporary American poet,... - ## New Acquisition: Mei-mei Berssenbrugge Papers
November 13, 2019
The papers of contemporary poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge include extensive correspondence, writings, photographs, teaching materials, and personal papers. - ## New Acquisition: John Ashbery Collages
October 30, 2019
The Beinecke Library has acquired five collages by poet and artist John Ashbery - ##
October 7, 2019
The papers of screenwriter and producer David Milch include writings, scripts, correspondence, videocassettes, printed material, and ephemera. - ## Beinecke Library 2018-2019 Annual Report
September 17, 2019
The Beinecke Library 2018-2019 Annual Report, including stories, statistics, and selected recent acquisitions, can be read and downloaded here: Beinecke... - ## Poet Wayne Koestenbaum’s archive ‘a memory lane of mental calories spent’
September 11, 2019
Over the course of a varied and prolific career, Wayne Koestenbaum has published poetry collections, volumes of cultural criticism, novels, and a libretto. Two years ago, he plunged into an entirely different sort of project, one that involved managing Excel spreadsheets and contemplating his unpublished work. - ## Really Fun: Tom Davis Papers Open for Research at the Beinecke Library
May 1, 2019
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library recently opened the Tom Davis Papers to research. It is an archive that was “really fun” to prepare for future... - ## NEW ACQUISITION: Tom Carey Papers
March 12, 2019
The recently-acquired papers of poet Tom Carey are open for research - ## Beinecke Library Acquires David Sedaris Papers
December 10, 2018
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired the papers of David Sedaris, noted American humorist, author, and essayist. Sedaris, who grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina, and graduated from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago in 1987, is the author of works including Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Calypso. - ## David Sedaris’s Back Pages, Before ‘SantaLand’ Made Him a Star (New York Times)
December 10, 2018 - ## Beinecke Library 2017-2018 Annual Report
November 20, 2018
The Beinecke Library 2017-2018 Annual Report, including stories, statistics, and selected recent acquisitions, can be read and downloaded here: Beinecke... - ## New Acquisition: Orson Welles Scripts
October 26, 2018
The Beinecke has recently acquired new Orson Welles materials, including an unproduced screenplay, the original script of a 1943 film, and a second draft of Welles’ famous film Citizen Kane with accompanying notes. - ## New Acquisition: A Long Way from Home Archive
October 15, 2018
Beinecke Library has acquired the archive for the documentary A Long Way from Home: The Untold Story of Baseball's Desegregation, written by Gaspar Gonzalez and Matthew Frye Jacobson and directed by Gaspar Gonzalez. - ## Beinecke Library funny business flourishes further with Nightingale cartoon book collection
August 7, 2018
William “Bill” Nightingale ’53 has been an active alumnus of Yale for 65 years. Among his latest connections with campus, Nightingale has given his collection of more than 300 cartoon books to the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. - ## NEW Acquisition: H.D.'s Needlework
April 13, 2018
The Yale Collection of American Literature is pleased to announce an addition to the H. D, Papers: the Schaffner Family Foundation has donated a collection of needleworks created by H. D. - ## Beinecke Library acquires Clumber Park Chartier; digital version online
March 27, 2018
The Beinecke Library recently acquired the Clumber Park Chartier, considered the finest illustrated manuscript of Alain Chartier (c. 1386-c. 1430), one of the... - ## New Acquisition: Steichen Family Papers
March 8, 2018
The Beinecke Library is delighted to announce that the recently-acquired Steichen Family Papers [YCAL MSS 1080] are now open for research. - ## New Acquisition -- Frederick Douglass Letters
February 9, 2018
The Beinecke Library is pleased to announce the acquisition of a small collection of Frederick Douglass correspondence with William L. Thomas. - ## Beinecke Library 2016-2017 Annual Report
January 30, 2018
The Beinecke Library 2016-2017 Annual Report can be read and downloaded here: BRBL 2016-2017 Annual Report.pdf - ## Judy Blume Archive Strengthens Beinecke Young Adult Collections
October 7, 2017
October 7, 2017 The Beinecke Library’s extensive holdings in children’s literature will soon grow with the addition of the archive of renowned young-adult... - ## Judy Blume, a Pre-Teen Fiction Trailblazer, Opens Up Her Archive (Wall Street Journal)
October 7, 2017 - ## Barbara Hammer Archive Adds to Beinecke Library’s Collections of LGBTQ Creativity
September 13, 2017
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired the archives of visual artist and filmmaker Barbara Hammer. The archives consist of notebooks,... - ##
March 13, 2017
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired an early illustrated copy of Telesphorus of Cosenza’s LIbellus de magnis tribulationibus et de... - ## Inside Jonathan Lethem's Oddball Trove (New York Times)
January 3, 2017 - ## iPL collection adds to Beinecke’s strengths in photobooks and modern trends in self-publishing
November 16, 2016 - ## Icons of American Literature
September 15, 2016
A collection of postcards, issued by Marc Selvaggio, Books & Ephemera, with reproductions of paintings by Peter Oresick. - ## Yale and Phillips Academy acquire archive of pioneering photojournalist Lucien Aigner
March 30, 2016
Yale’s University Art Gallery and Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and the Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy in Andover have... - ## Recently Acquired Papal Letter
December 17, 2015
This is a recently acquired papal letter written by Pope Gregory IX in 1234. Papal letters are called bulls after the lead seal affixed to the document called... - ## New Collection: Cultivating Thought Series
June 22, 2015
Chipotle Mexican Grill has made a gift of a complete set of its Cultivating Thought Series—short texts by acclaimed authors printed on paper cups and bags—to the Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Library. - ##
January 14, 2015
The collection includes behind-the-scenes photographs and posed photographs depicting actors Eddie Anderson, Lena Horne, and Rex Ingram, as well as other cast members. - ##
January 14, 2015
Hallelujah was one of the first films with an all-African American cast made by a major movie studio. - ##
September 23, 2014
The collection includes correspondence, printed material, and reports documenting the response among African American activists to the race riots of the summer of 1919, including efforts to aid victims and defend arrestees in Chicago, Knoxville, and Elaine, Arkansas. Material relating to the Chicago branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is particularly well represented. - ## Cave Canem Foundation Records
September 9, 2014
Among the most important and influential African American Arts organizations, the Cave Canem Foundation was established in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to “remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in Master of Fine Arts programs and writing workshops across the United States.” - ## Cornelius Eady Papers
September 9, 2014
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is excited to announce that it has acquired the literary archive of award-winning poet, dramatist, and literary activist Cornelius Eady. - ## David J. Supino Collection of Works by Henry James
July 18, 2014
Literary scholar and bibliographer David J. Supino has donated his extraordinary collection of works by Henry James to the Yale Collection of American Literature. - ## New Collection: Miller Scrapbook
May 20, 2014
The Beinecke Library has acquired an autograph manuscript diary and scrapbook that documents a trip to Nova Scotia trip by Richard A. Miller and Janet Miller, with their children David and Meredith, from Glastonbury, Connecticut, to Nova Scotia, 1978 July 30-August 13. - ## New Collection: 1920s Cartoons
May 14, 2014
The Yale Collection of American Literature has acquired a collection of humorous cartoons by an unidentified American artist, signed "F.G." or "J.G.," that feature a protagonist, Jerry, probably the alter ego of the artist, and his pursuit of women, as well as drinking alcohol, automobiles, and other subjects, circa 1926. - ## New Collection: Bell Scrapbook
May 5, 2014
The volume includes narrative about the trip, as well as circa 130 mounted photographic prints, circa 145 newspaper clippings and printed items, and 15 booklets and pamphlets tipped in or laid in. - ## New Acquisition: Darragh Park Sketchbooks & Artworks
April 21, 2014
The Darragh Park collection at Beinecke Library includes thirty-nine sketchbooks, one painting, and one drawing. The collection was the bequest of Darragh Park (Yale Class of 1961). - ## New Acquisition: Willard Dryden Paddock Photographs and Papers
April 10, 2014
The Beinecke Library has recently acquired the Willard Dryden Paddock Photographs and Papers collection; the archive was the gift of of Francesca Calderone-Steichen. - ## New Acquisition: Black Film Ephemera
March 7, 2014
These posters, press books, and lobby cards date from the 1940s through the 1980s, with an especially large concentration in the 1970s, the heyday of so-called "Blaxploitation" cinema. - ##
February 11, 2014
The James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of African American Arts and Letters has acquired more than 100 books included on the reading list of the Soul Passages Book Club, a Hartford, Connecticut, based reading group dedicated for more than 20 years to African American literary culture. - ## New Acquisition: Ericka Huggins Papers
March 4, 2013
The Catherine Roraback Collection of Ericka Huggins Papers is now available for research. - ## Marilynne Robinson Papers
February 24, 2013
The Yale Collection of American Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library has acquired the papers of Pulitzer-prize winning author and essayist Marilynne Robinson. - ## Recent Acquisition: English Pocket Bible (13th century)
February 10, 2013
An English pocket Bible in Latin arrived this past fall in the Beinecke's collections. The Bible shows many signs of use, including numerous marginal notes and it contains a separate book to aid the reader, the Interpretation of Hebrew Names, a detail of which is shown here. - ## "Beauty and Success"
August 2, 2012
Madam C. J. Walker (1867-1919) was a leading African-American businesswoman in the 1910s, and a pioneer in the beauty industry. Her products not only promised “good hair” and a “smooth, clear complexion” but also success for black women, a narrative that reflected Walker’s own ambition and remarkable rise as the first free-born American citizen in a family of slaves.