The Hyde Collection of Samuel Johnson holds some 75 letters written by James Boswell, but this just-acquired, previously unpublished letter to Boswell’s brother David perhaps outshines them all. When he wrote to David, then living in Valencia, Spain, in November of 1776, it was his first letter in several years. To one who has such Read More

A recent acquisition from Leo Cadogan Rare Books of London continues a Houghton Library tradition that was articulated by Roger Stoddard’s Marks in Books Illustrated and Explained and published by the Library in 1985. Stoddard’s exhibition catalogue demonstrates the value of evidentiary traces of use that can survive in books and tell us about their Read More

In a rare document recently added to the John Milton and Ruth Neils Ward Collection at the Harvard Theatre Collection, the long journey from youthful economic immigrant to established middle-aged citizen is traced in just a few lines of text.

A new acquisition in in the Early Modern Books and Manuscripts Department shows the inner workings of what one might think of as the 18th century precursor to Craigslist: the Universal Register Office. The Office was founded in 1751 by Sir John Fielding, the blind magistrate who played a crucial role in creating London’s first Read More

[Thanks to William Stoneman, Florence Fearrington Librarian of Houghton Library, for contributing this post.] I am pleased to announce a major acquisition of a collection of sixteenth-century annotated books from the English bookseller Roger Gaskell. Ann M. Blair, Henry Charles Lea Professor of History and Harvard College Professor, encouraged this acquisition. She is the author Read More