Special Collections

Wesleyan's rare book collection holds over 45,000 volumes, from medieval manuscripts and early printed books to twenty-first century artists' books (plus pamphlets, broadsides, and maps). Here in Digital Collections, you can explore some of our unique holdings: manuscripts, scarce texts, and one-of-a-kind copies of printed books.

Special Collections has examples of both manuscript fragments and codices, dating from the medieval period up to the eighteenth century. Complete codices in Digital Collections include an illuminated Book of Hours and an informal collection of sermons. The manuscript fragments include samples of medieval music, decorated Qur'ans, a Tibetan prayer scroll, and even a scrap of papyrus.

Publications documenting institutional and local history, such as: ephemeral university pamphlets; hard-to-find research on local and institutional history; and early published photographs of Middletown. These complement the material in the University Archives.

Browse Special Collections collections

Here is a listing of the collections from Special Collections that are available in Wesleyan University Library's digital collections.

Special Collections

Special Collections

Highlights from Special Collections

Manuscripts & fragments

Wesleyan & Middletown history

Browse Special Collections collections

B

Beales collection

D

Davison collection

M

Manuscripts & fragments

R

Rare books collection

W

Wesleyan & Middletown history