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The Providence Athenaeum Special Collections
We welcome researchers and visitors to come and explore our special collections. Exhibitions from these
collections can be viewed in the Philbrick rare book room.
Appointments are necessary for consultation of the special collections. Please call 401-421-6970 or
email Kate Wodehouse.
Bibliographies of the natural history and travel and exploration collections are available for purchase.
Over 12,000 of our rare book titles can be searched in the online catalog.
Founder's Collection
Much of the Providence Library Company's (1753-1836) original collection of 345 volumes was lost during
a disastrous fire on Christmas Eve, 1758. However, 70 volumes on loan at the time survived the fire
and a majority of these remain in the collection. As a body, this collection offers unique and valuable
insights into the formation of a publicly accessible library in the mid-18th century. There is supporting
material in the archives.
Archives
The archives contain institutional records dating to the foundation of the Providence Library Company
in 1753, records pertaining to the historic building, old library catalogues and publications by and
about the library. There are also extensive collections of photographs and ephemera relating to the
library.
Holder Borden Bowen Collection
This collection comprises about 2,000 volumes donated to the Athenaeum by Holder Borden Bowen in 1912. The
collection is rich in folklore, memoirs, 17th and 18th century travel and exploration, and many examples of
fine printing and binding. The collection also includes books on topics such as dueling, wine, and card playing.
Individual volumes include Slogans of the north of England, privately printed for M.A Denham in Newcastle-upon-Tyne
in a limited run in 1851; the first edition of The dramatick works of Sir Richard Steele (London, 1723);
Mutiny and Murder: confession of Charles Gibbs, a native of Rhode Island..., a recollection of the execution of this
pirate around 1830 to which is added short verse entitled A solumn address to Youth; and, an English
translation (London, 1755) of the authentic memoirs which chronicle the " surprising exploits of Mandrin, Captain-General
of the French smugglers."
Bowen was born in Providence in 1844 and lived as a bachelor most of his life in a house built
by his father, Tully Dorrance Bowen, at 389 Benefit Street. Known in Athenaeum circles as "Charlie",
he was a partner in the firm Borden and Bowen and was active in the library, to which he often donated books,
over most of his life.
The Board of the Athenaeum, upon receiving the collection in 1912, lamented that no space was available
to shelve the volumes and that the collection had to be stored in boxes in the bound periodicals room. It was,
in part, because of Bowen's gift to the already overcrowded library that the Board resolved to build an extension
onto the existing structure. As Grace Leonard, the librarian, wrote in the 1912 Annual Report: "The fact that the
Athenaeum has received a collection of great interest to its shareholders which it cannot make available for use,
serves to emphasize more strongly than ever before the absolute necessity of some early provision for an addition
to the building." Within only a couple of years the Isham addition was completed which greatly expanded the available
space. The more valuable volumes in Bowen's collection were shelved in a place of honor in the south-west corner
of the new extension behind the glass enclosed doors that still remain today. After the Platner addition was completed
in the 1970s the collection was moved into the climate-controlled Philbrick rare books room.
Pamphlet Collection
The varied pamphlet collection dates primarily to the 19th century and includes anti-slavery and temperance tracts, Civil War items, materials related to the Indian Rights Association of Philadelphia, and many others topics such as early shipwrecks, funeral orations, feminism, local and state organizations, etc. The collection has yet to be fully catalogued.
Smithsonian Institution Publications
At one time the Athenaeum was a depository library for the United States Government Printing Office. Consequently the library has numerous (and as yet uncataloged) materials from this office related to westward explorations, geological and geodetic surveys, ethnographic studies, coastal surveys and boundary determinations.
Old Juveniles
This collection numbers nearly 3000 and includes many early classics from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. British and American artists are well-represented. The collection contains both children's novels and illustrated books.
Old Fiction
This collection includes rare editions of books by famous authors such as Walt Whitman, Herman Melville and Louisa May Alcott. There are also many works printed in Providence and Boston in the 19th century and a large collection of women writers from the same period. There are many thousand titles in the collection and most are accessible via the on-line catalogue.
Costume Collection
Comprising about 200 volumes, the costume collection contains primarily 19th and 20th century works on European costume design.
Roycroft Collection
There are approximately 300 items from the press of the Roycrofters that flourished in East Aurora, NY from roughly 1895 to 1915. The Roycroft design was inspired by a mix of commercial interest and the arts-and crafts movement.
Travel and Exploration
The travel and exploration collection contains c.2500 titles ranging from Ptolemy's Cosmographia (1482), to the
Description de l'Egypte (1809-1822) commissioned by Napoleon, to early 20th century tour guides. The collection is particularly strong in 18th and 19th century works. A printed catalogue is available for sale.
Natural and Physical Sciences
There are many important scientific works in the collection ranging from ornithology
to horticulture to the physical sciences. A printed catalogue specifically on the natural history
collections is available for sale.
Robert Burns
Presented to the Athenaeum in 1920, the Burns collection numbers some 450 volumes. Among the early editions
in the collection are the first Edinburgh, the first London and the second American as well as several early imprints of individual poems and songs. There are also bibliographies and miscellaneous literature relating to Burns.
Book Arts
The library has many books that are notable for their excellence of design. There are examples of the development of books from the middle ages to the modern day. The library owns two medieval manuscripts and eight incunabula (books printed before 1501) that are part of the book arts collection.
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