Rare Books and Special Collections

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Location & Hours

Thomas Cooper Library's special collections are available to registered researchers in the Graniteville Room, entered through the mezzanine exhibit area. Reading room hours are Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM (except during holidays and the winter break). Detailed information on individual items may be found in the library's online catalog. Results limited to Rare Books and Special Collections may be obtained by choosing "Columbia Cooper Rare Books" on the main search page. The department may be reached by telephone at (803) 777-8154 or by e-mail.

Online Collections

Online collections are divided into six categories: 1. The Core Collection, 2. Natural History, 3. Historical Collections, 4. British Literature, 5. American Literature, and 6. Children's Literature. Links are provided below both to full exhibits and to briefer descriptions of individual collections.

The Core Collection and the History of the Book

The heart of the University's rare book collection remains the library of the original South Carolina College, books purchased or donated during the early nineteenth century. This library was particularly strong in general and classical literature, modern history, travel books, and natural history. With later additions, these core collections illustrate the history of the printed book and its cultural role from the invention of printing to the twentieth century. Two Hundred Years of USC's Libraries Printing, Renaissance and Reformation an exhibit on the transition from manuscript to print, including the Nuremberg Chronicle teaching collections on the early history of the book: Otto F. Ege Manuscript Collection (50 leaves from Medieval Manuscripts Pages from the Past Medieval Manuscripts Catalog (pdf) Breslauer Foundation Gift:  Cistercian Manuscript (1269) The Development of the Printed Page (151 pages, chiefly 15th-17th century) Bibles and prayer books, including the King James Bible  Renaissance maps, including the John Osman Collection of Braun & Hogenberg City Views and Blaeu's Grande Atlas (from the Kendall Collection)   Exploring Africa  Brazil, The Quincentennial Exhibit  Mexico, from the books of South Carolina College the Samuel Egerton Brydges Collection   the James Willard Oliver David Hume Collection, including the Treatise of Human Nature  modern fine printing, including the Doves Bible

Natural History & Science Collections

Significant additions to the original natural history collection in the South Carolina College library include:  the Richard Wingate Lloyd Collection of Early Botany eighteenth century watercolors donated by Ethelind Pope Brown the John Abbot Watercolors the Thomas Cooper Collection of Early Geology Charles Babbage - The Calculating Engine in the South Carolina College Library the John James Audubon Collection, including Birds of America (1828-38), purchased for the College by the legislature, the Quadrupeds, and additional prints donated by Jennie Haddock Feagle Audubon's Birds of America the Bachman Manuscript the Phelps Memorial Collection of Garden Books, including Catesby's Natural history of Carolina (1771) The Culture of Camellias : an exhibition chiefly from the Phelps Memorial Collection the George H. Bunch Medical History Collection Edward Jenner and the Discovery of Vaccination the C. Warren Irvin, Jr., Collection of Charles Darwin and Darwiniana, including The Origin of Species (1859) Charles Darwin, and Darwiniana Henry William Ravenel (1814-1887)

Historical Collections

Among notable additions to the University's strength in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century American history has been the important Campanella Collection in Italian history. Lords Proprietors' Grant and Seal (1699), donated by James P. Barrow, '62 Tennis an exhibition celebrating the William D. Haggard III Tennis Collection the Muggletonian collection (books from the seventeenth-century religious sect) the Alfred Chapin Rogers Collection of Eighteenth-Century American History Henri Gregoire on The Intellectual & Moral Faculties of Negroes (1810) Francis Marion's Regimental Muster Roll (1778) Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806) books from the library of Charles Pinckney (1757-1824) the Samuel D. Langtree American Pamphlets Collection the Barnwell-Singleton Collection Angelica Singleton Van Buren (1816-1877) the Anthony P. Campanella Collection of Giuseppe Garibaldi, including books, manuscripts, newspapers, broadsides, and medals the Kvaternik Letter, April 1864 the Chamberlain Collection of Military History the Francis Lord Collection of the American Civil War Tried as By Fire; or the True and the False Socially by Victoria C. Woodhull the Joseph M. Bruccoli Great War Collection Joseph Cohen WWI Collection of Isaac Rosenberg Isaac Rosenberg Digital Project Songs of the Great War - An Exhibition Posters of the Great War Samuel Bloom World War I Archive the Gilbert S. Guinn Military Aviation Collection the papers of Lord Allen of Hurtwood (1899-1939)

British Literature Collections

In addition to the collections listed below, there are significant holdings for most major British writers from the Renaissance onwards. the Robert J. Wickenheiser Collection of John Milton Introduction Exhibit brochure (pdf) Preliminary holdings lists John Milton & Seventeenth-Century Culture : An exhibit from earlier library holdings, giving an overview of Milton’s career  the G. Ross Roy Collection of Robert Burns, Burnsiana & Scottish Literature, including the Kilmarnock edition (1786) and The Merry Muses (1799) G. Ross Roy on Burns & the Roy Collection Robert Burns, 1759-1796 Scottish Chapbook Project Duncan Glen & akros the Sir Walter Scott Collection 19th century British & American literary annuals early 19th-century British drama the Rodger L. Tarr Collection of Thomas Carlyle Thomas Carlyle, (1795-1881) Alfred Tennyson, 1809-1892 the Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol the Rhoda Broughton pages Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894 the Ewelme Collection of Robert Bridges the Left Book Club collection

American Literature Collections

In addition to F. Scott Fitzgerald and other specific collections, holdings include most major American writers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Walt Whitman and the Development of Leaves of Grass the Joel Myerson Collection of Nineteenth-century American Literature Transcendentalists & Friends Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882): a bicentenary exhibition the William R. Bailey Collection (Emily Dickinson, Noah Webster, Paul Leicester Ford) Paul Leicester Ford the Mitchell Kennerly imprint collections (Bruccoli Collection) the Robert Frost Collection the Matthew J. & Arlyn Bruccoli Collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald Trimalchio and The Great Gatsby The Warner Brothers/Turner Entertainment F. Scott Fitzgerald Screenplays Collection the Speiser and Easterling-Hallman Foundation Collection of Ernest Hemingway the Hemingway and The Magazines the Jules Furthman Screenplay Archive Paris Publishers of the 1920's James Weldon Johnson 1871-1938 the Lucille Jordan Palmer Collection of Jesse Stuart the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings - an exhibition introducing the Robert D. Middendorf Collection Reviews on File, 1929-1970 the Armed Services Editions collection (Bruccoli Collection) the Joseph Heller Archive the Joseph Heller Papers the James Dickey Library and the James Dickey Poetry Seminar Room the Wallace Markfield Papers: an exhibition the Works of Norman Mailer the John Jakes Archive the Modern American Writers project the George V. Higgins Collection the George V. Higgins Retrospective Exhibition (pdf download) Charles Frazier and the Books of Cold Mountain The Kaye Gibbons Archive the American Literary Biography Depository the Frederick R. Karl Archive the John Manners Iggulden Papers 22 Collections:  An Exhibition from the Matthew J. and Arlyn Bruccoli Collections LitCheck--The Center for Literary Biography's Online Checklist

Children's Literature Collections

The core collection of children's literature, chiefly of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, is now complemented by selective twentieth-century additions. the Historical Children's Literature Collection Children's Literature, Chiefly from the Nineteenth Century Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) the Augusta Baker Collection of African-American Children's Literature & Folklore