Collection Development Policy: History (British)
  • Subject Librarian(s):
    Holly Snyder

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Tim Harris

  • Departmental Library Representative (DLR):
    Deborah Cohen

  • Description of the Academic Program | Home Page



  • Overview of the Collection
    The Library’s collection in British history serves a varied population of users, including undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and visiting researchers at the John Carter Brown Library and the Cogut Humanities Center. It primarily supports academic programs in the Departments of History and English, but contributes to scholarship in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies, Medieval Studies, Political Science, Theatre, Economics, History of Art and Architecture, Modern Culture and Media and Comparative Literature. It is particularly strong for the early modern and modern periods, and covers literary as well as historical works. Because of the important role played by Britain in the colonization of many parts of the world, the collection is important for historical study of North America, the Caribbean, Africa and South Asia as well as for the British Isles themselves. The Library’s monograph collections are particularly strong in materials on English local history and British political history, including a number of significant document series of great importance to the field of British history.

    The collection consists of circulating materials and full-text electronic databases, as well as rare books, manuscripts and microform sets which are available for use in the library. In particular, the Library has significant holdings in its special collections at the John Hay Library that document important aspects of British history and literature; these complement the holdings of the John Carter Brown Library. Among them are the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, the Orkney collection, the Swan Antarctica collection, the Carveley Collection on T.E. Lawrence, and a number of collections documenting key British literary figures (the Damon Blake collection, the Leab Orwell Collection, the Albert Shaw Collection), as well as substantial manuscript holdings pertaining to modern and early modern British literature. For further information on these, please refer to the Special Collections section of this collections policy statement and Collections A to Z on the Library's homepage.

  • Specific Collecting Guidelines
    • Language: Primary and secondary materials in the English language form the vast core of the collection. Primary materials in other languages (e.g., French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Latin) are acquired selectively.
    • Chronological Span: The periods and themes of British history that are the focus of the collection are Tudor-Stuart England, the British empire and Britain in the 20th century. General histories of England and the British Isles are also acquired. Medieval English history is covered by the Medieval Studies subject specialist.
    • Imprint Date: Circulating monographs of recent imprint (e.g., 1800 to present) form the core of the collection, however other materials such as serials, non-circulating monographs, and audiovisual and electronic resources are also collected.
    • Geographical Range: While the collection covers the entire span of the British Isles, because of the period and topical focus of the University’s academic programs the collection is not equally strong for all portions of the British Isles. The collection is strongest for England and the British empire, which are selected for the purpose of maintaining a strong research collection, while works on Wales, Scotland and Ireland are collected selectively, at the study level. A specialized collection of books in the John Hay Library, the donation of a private collector, supports the study of the Orkney Islands.
    • Types of Material Included: Monographs, journals, proceedings, annuals, reference tools, and web resources. Very limited purchase of audio-visual materials.
      • Serials: The Library subscribes to serials in both print and electronic format, although electronic subscriptions are now preferred over print copy for ease of access. In addition to subscribing to individual titles, the Library maintains subscriptions to JSTOR, Project Muse, Academic Search Premier, and other packages of aggregated electronic journals. Access to electronic journal subscriptions is provided for individual titles through the catalog record in JOSIAH or through the e-journals webpage. E-journal packages can also be accessed through the Databases A to Z webpage.
      • Microform holdings: The collection includes not only journals and monographs, but substantial resources in microform, including Early English Books, Early English Newspapers, British Parliamentary Papers, the Mass Observation Archive (which documents 20th century British working-class culture), and a complete run of the Times of London.
      • Electronic resources: Significant electronic databases for British History include the digital version of Early English Books (EEBO), the English Short Title Catalog (ESTC), Early English Prose Fiction, English Drama and the Times Digital Archive (covering 1795 to present). Materials in electronic formats such as CD-ROM, DVD, DVD-ROM and online access are acquired according to their licensing agreements and their compatibility with the library's system.
      • Audio-visual materials: The library acquires materials in all formats, with the exception of 8mm in the case of audiovisual items. Audiovisual materials are purchased on video, or, preferably, DVD format. All English-language films purchased for this collection are housed at Media Services in the Sciences Library. Materials in languages other than English may be found at the Language Resource Center. Music CDs are purchased by the Music Librarian and are housed at the Orwig Music Library.

    • Types of Materials Excluded: Introductory general-purpose textbooks whose primary function is instruction are outside the scope of this collection.


  • Special Collections
    The holdings of the Brown University Library are particularly strong for materials pertaining to modern British history. Among the most pertinent collections are the following:

    • The ANNE S. K. BROWN MILITARY COLLECTION is the foremost American collection of material devoted to the history and iconography of soldiers and soldiering, and is one of the world's largest collections devoted to the study of military and naval uniforms. Formed over a period of forty years by the late Mrs. John Nicholas Brown (1906-1985), it comprises approximately 12,000 printed books, 18,000 albums, sketchbooks, scrapbooks and portfolios, (containing thousands of prints and drawings), and over 13,000 individual prints, drawings and water-colors as well as a collection of 5,000 miniature lead soldiers.

    • The NAPOLEON COLLECTIONS. The Library’s holdings on Napoleon consist of two collections assembled by William Henry Hoffman and Brown alumnus Paul Revere Bullard (1897), and were donated to the Library by their respective heirs. The Bullard collection consists of satires of Napoleon by artists from various countries, and is one of the strongest such collections in the United States. The Hoffman Collection consists of manuscripts, rare books, prints and art objects.

    • MICHAEL J. CIARALDI COLLECTION. The Ciaraldi collection was amassed in the early 1970s, and came to the Library in 1996. The majority of the collection consists of comic books published between 1970 to 1995; there are also significant sections of magazine-format comics, graphic novels, fan and collector's journals, reissues of classic "golden age" comics and newspaper strips, translations of Japanese "manga" and "anime" comics and European comic art, and compilations of the work of comic artists, as well as advertising ephemera, role-playing game materials, and adult erotica. The Collection is particularly noteworthy for its holdings of comics by the small and independent publishers of the 1970s and 1980s. Imprints are very largely American, with some British satirical graphic magazines. The total number of items in the Collection is estimated at 60,000.

    • S. FOSTER DAMON COLLECTION ON THE OCCULT. The collection deals primarily with alchemy, the interpretation of dreams, mysticism, black magic and the Kabbalah plus visionary testaments and manifestations of all kinds. Includes rare editions of early occult books and numerous chronicles of demonology, secret societies, theosophical orders, and ancient mystery relitions. Among the works on sorcery and supernatural events are several on American witchcraft and the Salem trials. The collection reflect's Damon's fascination with alchemy, mysticism, symbolism and theosophy.

    • DUPEE FIREWORKS COLLECTION.
      Through the generosity of Paul Dupee, the library acquired the premier collection of books and manuscripts devoted to the history of recreational fireworks. The collection was assembled by Chris A. Philip, one of Great Britain's foremost pyrotechnists and author of the standard reference work on the subject -- A Bibliography of Firework Books (Winchester, 1985). It includes John Babington's Pyrotechnia, or a discourse of Artificiall Fire-works: In which the true Grounds of that Art are plainly and perspiciously laid downe (London, 1635), the Brown University Library's ceremonial Three Millionth Volume .

    • LOWNES HISTORY OF SCIENCE COLLECTION. The History of Science Collections encompass books and manuscripts dating from the late 15th to the mid 20th century. Particular strengths are in the history of mathematics and astronomy. There are editions of classical authors on mathematics and astronomy, sixteenth and seventeenth century astronomical tables, and fifteenth and sixteenth century editions of Latin translations of Arabic astronomical and astrological texts. They provide many of the works fundamental to the study of the exact sciences during the Renaissance. There are more than 4,000 significant works documenting the sciences in modern times, many of which were printed before 1800, beginning with the works of Galileo, Kepler, Tycho Brahe, Newton, and his followers. There are also early editions of works by Ampere, Francis Bacon, Boyle, Mme Curie, Einstein, Franklin, Helmholtz, von Humboldt, William James, Leibniz, Lyell, Maury, Napier, Pasteur, Priestly, and Vesalius.

    • MEL YOKEN COLLECTION. Personal Collection of Mel B. Yoken, a Brown alumnus, assembled over a period of forty years. Receipt of the collection by the Brown University Library began in 1999 and is still in progress. It consists primarily of 20th century correspondence from and literary works by American, British, French and Québécois authors, artists and public figures. Numerous letters written by significant figures of the 18th and 19th century enhance the historical, literary and political interest of the collection. Notes, typescripts, photographs and personal papers complement the archive, as well as the many inscriptions, annotations and signatures in the book collection.

    • MILLER COLLECTION OF WIT AND HUMOR.
      The Miller Collection, consisting of approximately 40,000 volumes, is the personal library of Bernard, Saul, and George Miller, who assembled the best collection of American humor in private hands, which they donated it to Brown University Library in the early 1990s. The Collection consists primarily of 20th-century American imprints, but also includes significant sections of 19th-century joke books, British imprints, works in Russian, Hebrew, French, German, and Italian, and 19th-century editions of classic works of humor. The Collection includes much important early humor material, such as Joe Miller's Jests, or The Wit's Vade-Mecum (London, 1739), and Yankee Notions, or, The American Joe Miller, by Sam Slick (London, 1839). There is topical humor of every conceivable kind, such as sex, medicine, the law, sex, politics, sports, sex, and plumbing. There are also sections of comic novels, familiar essays by humorists, political satire, light verse, theatrical memoirs of comedy performers, American and European folk humor, ethnic humor, vaudeville routines, collections of political cartoons, paperback joke and cartoon books, and playscripts; and a notable section of "Army joke books", pulp periodicals from the World War II era.

    • ISABEL HARRIS METCALF PEACEANA COLLECTION. Mrs. Isabel Harris Metcalf was a Rhode Island pacifist who collected and indexed material relating to the international peace movement. Her collection, consisting of 50 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings, loose clippings and correspondence relating to the League of Nations and the World Peace Movement, covers the period from 1918 and 1941.

    • ORKNEY COLLECTION. Consists of approximately 100 books on the history of the Orkney Islands.

    • WANDERING JEW COLLECTION. The gift of W. Easton Louttit, Jr. (Brown 1925), this collection includes plays, poems, novels, and stories, and prints, as well as critical, philosophical, and scholarly studies of the archetypical story of the men shut out from the human community and doomed to wander eternally.Possibly the finest accumulation of books on this theme to be found outside the Bibliotheque Nationale. It contains over 1,500 volumes featuring works by Goethe, Schiller, Shelley, Feuchtwanger, Edwin Arlington Robinson and especially Eugene Sue.

    • HENRY WHEATON PAPERS. Henry Wheaton (Brown 1802), a jurist, served as United States Chargé d'Affaires to Denmark, and Minister to Prussia. This collection of 275 letters and manuscripts consists chiefly of the correspondence of Wheaton and his family in Europe and America and concerns personal, diplomatic, legal, and political affairs, especially during the War of 1812.

    • WAR POSTERS. The War Posters form a part of the Broadsides Collection and includes hundreds of items from a variety of nations, although the collection focus is mainly on American war posters from World War I and II.


    Images (courtesy of the John Hay Library): 1742 Shire Map of England, from Thomas Badeslade, Chorographia Britanniae; or, A set of Maps of All the Counties in England and Wales... (London: 1742)