Rare Book collections of the Free Library of Philadelphia

Description

The Free Library of Philadelphia is home to one of the nation's great collections of rare books and manuscripts, housed at two locations: the Beaux Arts flagship Parkway Central Library and the historic townhouse of the Rosenbach brothers . From manuscripts of Wilde, Lincoln, Edgar Allen Poe, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, to letters written by Emily Dickinson and John Keats, to first editions of Miguel de Cervantes and Phillis Wheatley, original artwork by Beatrix Potter, Howard Pyle, Kate Greenaway, and NC Wyeth, Elizabethan portrait miniatures, Judaica, ancient Egyptian artifacts, Charles Dickens' desk, and Herman Melville’s bookcase, the Free Library is home to a unique, world-class humanities collection.