Holdings in the history, literature, culture, and politics of Ireland from the 17th century to the middle of the 20th century are concentrated in three named collections, the Joyce Collection, the Yeats Collection, and the P. S. O’Hegarty Collection. There also are sizable Irish holdings in the general rare book collection, especially for the 18th and 19th centuries, and in the manuscript collections, making this one of the most significant and sizable concentrations outside of Ireland.

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The Department of Special Collections is the rare books and manuscripts repository of the University of Kansas Libraries. These collections provide students, scholars and the general public access to primary sources that document the history, literature, and culture of civilization from its very beginnings to the present.

The staff acquire, preserve, and make available such information resources as manuscripts, printed books, maps, photographs, architectural drawings and blueprints, newspapers and other serial publications (e.g., periodicals), films, audiotapes, and videotapes.

Areas of traditional collecting emphasis include ancient and medieval manuscripts, English and Italian historical documents, early printed books (England, France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal), Cervantes, 18th-century England, early English newspapers, the French Revolution, history of economics (to 1850), Irish history, literature and culture, Latin America (particularly Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Brazil), Natural History (including Ornithology, John Gould, and Linnaeus), travel and exploration, maps, children’s literature, science fiction, architecture (particularly Frank Lloyd Wright), American poetry (after World War II), and selected aspects of the history of American education.

 

This exhibit is made possible through the Spencer Research Library Publications and Exhibitions Fund, at the Kansas University Endowment Association.