Open for Research

Posts and news stories about selected collections opened for research. Researchers are encouraged to search the library’s collections to explore the full range of materials, both longstanding and newly acquired or processed

  • How Janet Malcolm Created Her Own Personal Archive (LitHub)

    January 18, 2023

    It’s hardly coincidental that Malcolm was organizing her own archive around the same time that she began to explore writing about her life. In 2013, she sent her first shipment—59 boxes of assorted detritus—up to New Haven, where they would live at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To say that Malcolm organized her papers would be a stretch. In some cases, she simply emptied the contents of her filing cabinets into cardboard boxes. But elsewhere, she annotated letters and folders, leaving easter eggs and reminders for any future researcher that she was thinking carefully about what to include in her archive and, more importantly, what to leave out.

  • An image of a manuscript page with a rubricated initial and black text in gothic script.

    Takamiya MS 98: An Excised Fragment of the Stafford Gower

    March 27, 2022

    Beinecke manuscript fragment Takamiya MS 98 once belonged to a 14th-century manuscript known as the Stafford Gower (Huntington Library MS EL 26 A 17), a copy of John Gower's Middle English poem "Confessio Amantis." It was excised and used as binding waste.

  • An image of a manuscript page with illuminated and rubricated initials and black text.

    Osborn fa38: An Early Copy of Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica

    January 18, 2022

    Petrus Comestor’s Historia scholastica, composed in Latin and completed in Paris in the 1170s, was one of the key texts for historical and scriptural education among schoolmen throughout the Middle Ages. The Beinecke Library is fortunate to possess an early copy of this important medieval text: Osborn fa38, which was produced in England at the priory of Rochester Cathedral.

  • A manuscript drawing of a compass colored with yellow, red, blue and green pigment.

    Turkish MSS Suppl 184

    December 17, 2021

    The Maʿrifetnāme is a scholarly encyclopedia that covers a wide range of areas, including astronomy, astrology, anatomy, physiology, psychology, physics, mathematics, biology, geometry, physiognomy, faith, mysticism, education, social, moral and traditional sciences.

  • Open for Research: John Ashbery Collection of Artwork and Objects

    November 29, 2021

    The Beinecke Library has recently acquired a collection of artwork and objects collected by American poet John Ashbery. It includes paintings, glassware, ceramics, clothing, household objects, realia, printed material, collage materials, and other items of significance to Ashbery, some of which inspired his poetry or appeared in his published work.

  • 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,...

  • David Milch Papers

    October 7, 2019

    The papers of screenwriter and producer David Milch include writings, scripts, correspondence, videocassettes, printed material, and ephemera.

  • Gerrit Lansing Papers

    October 2, 2019

    The personal and literary archive of American poet Gerrit Lansing is open for research

  • Female American Poets: Archival Connections

    April 16, 2019

    The next poet in our series, Female American Poets: Archival Connections, is Maya Angelou. A poet, autobiographer, activist, and director, Angelou explores sound, memory, and sexuality in her poetry and prose. Her work investigates and colors the history of Black oppression, activism, and power in America.

  • New Acquisition: Steichen Family Papers

    March 8, 2018

    The gift of Edward Steichen's grandaughter, Francesca Calderone-Steichen, the Steichen Family Papers contains photographs, correspondence, writings, exhibition materials, legal papers, genealogical materials, audiovisual materials, digital media, and other papers relating to the twentieth century photographer and art curator Edward J. Steichen and the members of his family.

  • Mina Loy Papers Online

    December 5, 2017

    The Yale Collection of American Literature is pleased to announce that the Mina Loy Papers have been digitized in their entirety; the collection can be viewed...

  • Open for Research: Rudolph Dunbar Papers

    July 24, 2017

    Rudolph Dunbar (1899-1988) was a Guyanese clarinetist, music conductor, photojournalist, editor and music teacher. Dunbar began his career as a clarinetist while a teenager in the British Guiana Militia band.

  • Open for Research: Robin Magowan Papers

    July 24, 2017

    The Beinecke Library is pleased to announce that the Robin Magowan Papers have recently been organized and described. The collection is open for research