Rare Book Collection
The Rare Book Collection consists of approximately 30,000 books, serials, and pamphlets in a wide variety of subject areas, including entomology, botany, computing and engineering, animal rights and animal welfare, and book history. The collection includes early natural history sources, particularly those which lay the foundations for the study of entomology. The rare book collections span over five centuries, ranging from incunabula to modern press books and serials, the core of which are the rare book collections of Zeno Payne Metcalf and Friedrich Tippmann. The collection also supports study in the book arts and design.
Curatorial priorities include rare books, pamphlets, and ephemera that:
- directly support faculty teaching
- diversify representation of historically marginalized creators, communities, and topics
- document the history of animal protection, both nationally and internationally
- document the history of agriculture in North Carolina and the Southeastern United States, especially as it relates to environmental justice, animal welfare, and African-American history
- Build areas of existing collections strength in entomology, botany, and horticulture
- relate to book arts, history of the book, and Design
- relate to Architecture and Landscape Architecture, emphasizing Mid-Century Modernism
- document the history of science, with special interest in computing, computer simulation, engineering, and STEM areas
- relate to university history, especially underrepresented communities
- facsimiles when appropriate to support the research and teaching needs of the university community
Browse Special Collections items in the Catalog
Support
The Francis E. and Julie G. McVay Endowment for Archives and Manuscript Collections supports this and other collections.
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