13 Wonderfully Specific Libraries Reveal Their Oldest Treasures @ Archives

We asked these unique libraries about their oldest holdings and got delightfully diverse answers. 

 

 

Some of the world’s best, most interesting libraries are not grand buildings with the extensive collections, but small spaces dedicated to one wonderfully specific type of work. There are libraries that focus on lesbian history and ones that keep only works connected to the human imagination. Look for libraries in private clubs or nonprofit organizations, and you can find examples dedicated to magic or Karl Marx.

We love libraries like these, and we wanted to know more about the secrets they hold. So we contacted 13 of the world’s wondrously specific libraries and asked: What’s the oldest item in your collection?

When we asked the same of larger libraries, we learned about ancient cookbooks, illuminated gospels, Greek studies of plants, and a good number of cuneiform tablets. These smaller libraries had an even wider range of treasures to tell us about.

A couple of the libraries we contacted have such unique collections that they couldn’t even answer the question. The oldest item in the Brautigan Library in Vancouver, Washington, which collects unpublished manuscripts, would have been one of the documents donated in 1990, when the library opened, but it’s hard to say which, exactly. The Library of Water in Iceland contains samples of glacier water collected between 2003 and 2007, but it’s impossible to know which bit of melted ice formed first.

But most of the libraries had ready answers, and we heard about some excellent items, including party penguin puppets, paired treatises on milk and mountains, a socialist magazine quashed by the government, and a world map from 1452. (And, okay, a couple of cuneiform tablets, too.)

·         Scott Polar Research Institute Museum & Library

·         Interference Archive

·         Julian P. Kanter Political Commercial Archive

·         U.S. Naval Observatory Library

·         Poetry Foundation Library

·         American Geographical Society Library

·         The Kennel Club Library

·         Denver Zine Library

·         Amalgamated Puppet Lending Library

·         Grolier Club Library

·         American Alpine Club Library

·         Bibliotheca Wittockiana

·         Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation & Fantasy

Link | https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/oldest-library-books-small-specific-libraries-manuscripts

Regards

Pralhad Jadhav  

Senior Manager @ Knowledge Repository  

Khaitan & Co 

Blog | http://pralhad-fyilibrarian.blogspot.in/  

Website | https://sites.google.com/site/pralhadjadhavlib/home        

Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978