Special Collections
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Special Collections
In this section
Special Collections
- Pages
- Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center
- Special Collections Fellowships
- Rare Books
- University Archives
- Manuscripts
- Historic Collection at John Work Garrett Library
- Exhibitions
- Reparative Archival Description
Special Collections houses an incredible collection of rare books and historic documents, as well as materials pertaining to the history of Johns Hopkins University. Highlights include the Arthur and Janet Freeman Collection of Literary and Historical Forgery, the Roland Park Company Papers, and over sixteen thousand images in our University Photograph Collection.
Our main Special Collections Reading Room is located on M-level of the Brody Learning Commons; we also offer limited researcher services at the George Peabody Library and the John Work Garrett Library. Whether for research, personal interest, or instruction, we are happy to make our materials available for your use.
In addition to researcher and instruction services, our department also hosts a series of academic programs under the aegis of the Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center, as well as a variety of outreach events. We look forward to hearing about your research interests.
Archives
Ethel Ennis and Earl Arnett Collection
Ethel Ennis (1932-2019) was an acclaimed jazz artist who graced some of the most prominent stages in the nation while maintaining a commitment to her hometown, Baltimore. Her husband and partner, Earl Arnett (b. 1940) is a former Baltimore Sun reporter, theater critic, and instructor at Peabody Conservatory. This extensive collection (155 linear feet) documents their careers, their production company ENE Productions, and their restaurant/cabaret Ethel's Place through recordings, musical arrangements, photographs, artifacts, and other materials.
Archives
American Prison Writing Archive
The United States holds nearly two million people in its prisons and jails—a larger share of its population than in any other nation on earth. Yet there remains widespread ignorance of conditions inside. Amid the unprecedented American experiment in mass incarceration, the American Prison Writing Archive (APWA) hopes to disaggregate this mass into the individual minds, hearts, and voices of incarcerated writers. By soliciting, preserving, digitizing, and disseminating the work of imprisoned people and volunteers, the APWA aims to ground national debate on mass incarceration in the lived experience of those who know prisons best.
Map
John and Linda Greene Map Collection
The John and Linda Greene Map Collection contains over 2,000 maps dating from the 1500s to the present. Its multi-century, global focus makes the collection a particularly rich resource for those who study maps used for diplomacy, education, and news.
Ephemera
Romance Comic Book Collection
While iconic characters like Batman and Spider-Man were mesmerizing readers, an alternate comic book timeline was booming, featuring the adventures of airline stewardess Bonnie Taylor, tragically unhappy actress Lisa St. Clair, and countless other female characters seeking love and fulfilling relationships in the pages of romance comic books. Popular from the late 1940s to the mid-1970s, romance comic books introduced teenagers to the joys and heartache of love. The Sheridan Libraries holds over 200 issues, including such titles as "Falling in Love," "Girls' Love Stories," "Teen-Age Romances," and "Young Romance."
Ephemera
Comedias Sueltas Collection
The Comedias Sueltas Collection is a remarkable assortment of more than a thousand ephemeral editions of Spanish plays from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
View selections on Internet Archive
Archives
Johns Hopkins Biographical Archive
There is a thin evidentiary record of archival materials relating to the life of Johns Hopkins. For years, leaders and community members have centered their story of our founder on his benevolent gift to the city of Baltimore: a university and a hospital, and the accepted narrative that he was an early abolitionist. Under the auspices of Hopkins Retrospective and through the Sheridan Libraries, this archive explores and publicly presents archival materials related to the life of Johns Hopkins and his family, including newly discovered census records that provide evidence that Johns Hopkins was a slaveholder during the mid-1800s.
Archives
Oral History Collection
Documents the Hopkins history through recordings and transcriptions of interviews with members of the Hopkins community. The collection includes both audio and video interviews, and continues to grow as new oral histories are recorded and added.
Archives
Historical University Photographs
University Archives holds over 20,000 photographs documenting the visual history of Johns Hopkins University from its founding to present.
Manuscripts
Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection
The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music contains over 29,000 pieces of American popular music from the 19th and 20th centuries.
Rare Books
The Hinkes Collection of Scientific Discovery
The Hinkes Collection of Scientific Discovery is composed of hundreds of rare books and manuscripts documenting the trajectory of scientific thought from the 15th to 20th centuries. Highlights include the first edition of Galileo’s illustrated treatise on the discovery of sunspots (1613), the first appearance in print of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, in a rare paper printed by the Linnaean Society (1858), and a hand-colored copy of Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr's Atlas Coelestis (1742).
What's New
Further Reading
A Jazz Romance: Ethel Ennis, Baltimore & Me
Earl Arnett’s new memoir about his life with Baltimore jazz legend Ethel Ennis brings to life the photos, letters, album covers, and other archival materials in the Ethel Ennis and Earl Arnett Collection.
Researcher Services
- When is the Reading Room open?
Check the hours on the Reading Room location page. - Register with Aeon
Special Collections and Archives uses the Aeon system to register researchers and help them request materials. We ask that researchers register with Aeon in advance of their visit. You do not need to be affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University to use the system.
The Aeon system offers many benefits to researchers. You will be able to:
- Register online and prior to your visit
- Request Special Collections and Archives materials in Catalyst and ArchivesSpace, including the holdings of the John Work Garrett Library, the George Peabody Library, as well as archives collections
- Maintain a record of your requests and easily reactive a request if you need to see materials again
- Create a list of items you may want to see prior to making a request
- Assign keyword tags to help manage your requests
- Schedule your visits online
- Finding and Requesting Materials
Rare books, manuscripts, and archives collections are stored in several different locations and are not available for public browsing. Our collections are searchable in Catalyst . Finding aids for archives and manuscript collections can be searched in ArchivesSpace. You can request books and archives/manuscript collections online once you register and log in to Aeon.
We can meet most requests within 2 business days. Please if you have questions about finding materials for your research or if you encounter difficulties with the Aeon system. - Using the Special Collections Reading Room
The Reading Room is only open to researchers using Special Collections materials, both Hopkins affiliates and non-affiliates. No appointment is necessary, though we do encourage researchers to contact us in advance to guarantee that requested materials are available. Researchers must exercise the greatest care in handling fragile documents and books. The following guidelines are intended to help preserve these materials for your use as well as for the use of future researchers.
- Researchers are required to register with us. The registration is valid for one year upon completion of the registration process.
- Materials are to be used only in designated areas under the direction of Special Collections staff.
- Researchers may bring into the Reading Room laptops, digital cameras/phones, notebooks, reference books, and pencils. All other personal belongings are to be left in the lockers located near the Reading Room entrance.
- Food and drink are prohibited.
- Care must be taken in handling rare and unique materials. Unbound material must be flat on the table. Nothing can be written in or placed on Special Collections materials. Supplies are available to hold bound items open. The original order and pagination of unbound materials must be maintained. Do not rearrange manuscript or archival materials in any way.
- Special Collections staff are available to help you and address any problems you may encounter using our resources and spaces.
Learn more about visitor access at the library - Image Services
The Special Collections Reading Room features a scanner for researchers to use at no charge. In addition, researchers are encouraged to bring their own cameras into the Reading Room. Please note that tripods, light set-ups, and personal scanners are not allowed.
- Contact staff if you need an image for publication.
- Please remember that certain restrictions may apply to what we can copy, such as if a book is in poor shape, under copyright, or if a particular collection has embargoes on its use. We will inform you in advance if restrictions apply.
- Material Loans
Special Collections materials are non-circulating. Please us if your institution is interested in obtaining a loan for exhibition. - Instruction and Class Visits
We are eager to work with you to support and enhance your teaching! Our holdings cover the historical aspects of most disciplines, and we are open to engaging with your class in a variety of ways: a class visit giving an overview of the collections, a more in-depth instructional session, or other creative interactions that we can plan together. Exposing students to rare materials offers students a tangible experience of history in the classroom setting and adds exciting depth to almost any course. 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.
All instruction using our collections is held in our teaching spaces at the Brody Learning Commons, the Garrett Library, or the George Peabody Library. Special Collections staff will provide support for instruction, including room reservations and the retrieval of requested materials.
Staff Directory
| Name | Contact | Location | Subject Areas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burri, Margaret Associate Director for Academic Liaison and Special Collections | 410-516-8366 [email protected] | Mt. Washington | |
| Dean, Gabrielle William Kurrelmeyer Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts | 667-208-6715 [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | Post-1800 Rare Books and Manuscripts |
| Diehl, Kristen Processing Archivist | 410-516-5898 [email protected] | Mt. Washington | |
| Espinosa, Paul Curator of George Peabody Library | 667-208-6715 [email protected] | George Peabody Library | |
| Havens, Earle Director of the Virginia Fox Stern Center for the History of the Book in the Renaissance and the Nancy H. Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts | 410-516-8662 [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons, Stern Center | |
| Herr, Heidi Librarian for English, Philosophy, and Special Collections Student Engagement | 410-516-4259 [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | English, Philosophy, Writing Seminars |
| Kimball, Amy Head of Materials Management | 410-516-6506 [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons, Evergreen Museum & Library, John Work Garrett Library | |
| Bessen, Sam Eleanor and Lester Levy Family Curator of Sheet Music and Popular Culture | [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | |
| Plaster, Joseph Director, Tabb Center & Curator in Public Humanities | [email protected] | Mt. Washington | |
| Seyler, Allison Hopkins Retrospective Program Manager | 410-516-8540 [email protected] | Mt. Washington | |
| Clark, Jenelle Accessioning Archivist | 410-516-8323 [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | |
| Shilling, Brooke Reference Archivist | [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | |
| Carey, Katie Hodson Curator of the University Archives | 410-516-5493 [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | |
| Berkley, Tonika Africana Archivist | 410-516-5492 [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | |
| Beckman, Elizabeth Processing & Research Archivist | [email protected] | Mt. Washington | |
| Miller, Ve'Amber Digital Content & Outreach Coordinator | [email protected] | Mt. Washington | |
| McClurkin, Daniel Postdoctoral Fellow | [email protected] | Stern Center | |
| Michalek, Martin Postdoctoral Fellow | [email protected] | Evergreen Museum & Library, Stern Center | |
| Evans Letocha, Phoebe Metadata & Digitization Specialist | [email protected] | Mt. Washington | |
| Lewis, Irene Congressional Papers Processing Archivist | [email protected] | Libraries Service Center | |
| Connell, Nicole Congressional Papers Processing Archivist | [email protected] | Libraries Service Center | |
| Wiggins-Jackson, Raynetta Lead Curator, Curating and Archiving Black Baltimore | [email protected] | Brody Learning Commons | |
| Utz, Zachary APWA Archivist | [email protected] | Remote |
Sidebar
Reading Room Hours
The Special Collections Reading Room is located the Brody Learning Commons on Homewood Campus.\ View Hours
Upcoming Events
We host many lectures and student events throughout the year.\ Events Listing
Online Exhibitions
Browse online exhibitions curated by Special Collections staff and fellows.\ View Online Exhibitions
Get Involved
Work, volunteer, or become a fellow at Special Collections.\ See Opportunities