Modern Books and Manuscripts

The collection of Modern Books and Manuscripts covers a wide range of subjects with strengthsin literature written in English outside the United States; American children's literature; the printing arts; LGBTQ writing; human sexuality and gender studies; playing cards;the history of hunting and fishing;and the history of finance.

  • Pondering the power of art in protest

    September 26, 2023

    “Art, Protest, & the Archives,” an exhibition at the Beinecke Library, explores the connections between dissent and artistic expression over the past century.

  • Fall exhibit at the Beinecke Library explores art and protest (Yale Daily News)

    September 14, 2023

    The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library’s newest exhibit, “Art, Protest, and the Archives,” probes the relationship and tensions between aesthetics and dissent. The exhibit premiered on Aug. 4 and will run through January. The first floor offers a chronological look at protest art over time, while the work upstairs is arranged by topic. Kevin Repp, a curator at the Beinecke, worked with other museum staff to create an exhibition that covers a vast geographical and temporal span.

  • Art School Doc Uncovers Cuba’s Unfinished Spaces (New Haven Independent)

    August 13, 2023

    ... the Ives Main Library on Elm Street partnered with the Yale Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library on Friday to bring the film to the people of New Haven as a part of a month-long film series dedicated to art and protest. “The Beinecke’s doing a good job of community engagement lately,” said Sandra Rux, one of five viewers who clustered in the library before a large screen, ready to learn about one of the greatest unfinished monuments to Cuba and its history. Before them unfolded a tale of politics, community, and the power of creation.

  • Love, Judy Blume (Slate)

    April 22, 2023

    Blume’s letters are part of the collection of Yale University’s Beinecke Library, which the film’s directors, Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok, visited for research. And while it tells two correspondents’ stories, they’re clearly stand-ins for dozens, hundreds, maybe thousands more letter-writers who developed relationships with Blume over the years. Kim, who is now 54 and a writer herself, told me, “If I poured so much emotion into my letters, and she was getting 1,000 or 2,000 a month, how much collective American emotion is in that collection … is beautiful.”

  • Infinity has a price

    March 1, 2023

    One of Yale’s most intriguing investments is a 375-year-old “perpetual” Dutch bond that still pays interest. It was issued by the Hoogheemraadschap Lekdijk Bovendams, a semi-public organization charged with maintaining the dike along the Lek river in the Netherlands. The water authority was founded in 1323; its successor still operates today, in the province of Utrecht, as the Stichtse Rijnlanden. This is where Yale Beinecke curator Timothy Young showed up in 2015 to collect twelve years of past interest payments, amounting to 132 euros. The authority was glad to pay. There are few entities in the world that can claim such a long, continuous history of good credit.