Collections

Test page.

Thank you for your payment.

Your payment has been received. You will receive a confirmation email from us within 72 hours that will serve as your receipt.

Contact

Name
Email
Phone 

Rare Books Defined

In the 1980s, curator of rare books Ruth Mortimer created a list of definitions or guidelines for both readers and possible donors to the Rare Book Room. The handout included this caveat: Rare books, by their nature, do not adapt well to definition … The pleasure of collecting rare books lies in assessing the peculiarities of each volume. The current rare book collection contains items ranging in date from approximately 3,000 B.C.

Our Smallest Books

The Mortimer Rare Book Room is home to a sizable collection of miniature books, defined as being three inches or less in height. They cover a variety of subjects and styles: English literature, the bible, Latin classics, alphabets, fine bindings. Also represented are the tiniest of volumes, dollhouse miniatures.

Our Oldest Objects

In the fall of 1993, the Department of Religion and Biblical Literature transferred 370 Babylonian clay tablets to the Rare Book Room. The tablets were probably excavated in what is now Iraq and were gradually procured for Smith since 1915 by professors Irving F. Wood and Elihu Grant.

Before they were “rare”  

The genesis of the rare book collection came in the 1940s when early printed books were brought from the general library stacks into a more protective environment. The presence of library call numbers on the spines of many books now in the Rare Book Room indicates that they circulated at one time: students could check them out for use outside the library.

The Dimock Collection

On the occasion of an exhibition in October 2000 of selections from the Dimock Collection in the Mortimer Rare Book Room, director of Libraries Christopher Loring remarked:

Henry Latimer Seaver, 1878-1976

In April 1960, College Librarian Margaret Johnson wrote a memo about fundraising possibilities for the planned new Rare Book Room. At the top of her list of people who “have shown definite interest in the Rare Book Room through their gifts,” was Henry L. Seaver, a member of the architecture faculty at MIT.