Notable Collections

The Edwin Forrest collection documents the career of Forrest (1806-1872), a major nineteenth-century American actor, noted for his Shakespearean roles.

Among the strengths of the Penn Libraries' collections, especially those housed in the Penn Museum Library, are our collections related to the archaeology, architecture, arts, culture, history, languages, religions, and texts of ancient Egypt and Nubia.

From 1583 to 1712, the Dutch firm of Elzevier (sometimes written Elsevier or Elzevir), with additional offices in France and Scandinavia, published a wide variety of books, and notably small-format books, for circulation throughout Europe.

The literature, linguistics, and education bibliographers at the Van Pelt Library have assembled a strong collection of materials on teaching English as a second language.

This webpage provides an overview of special collections in the Penn Libraries relevant to the study of the environment and ecology, presented thematically across a broad range of historical time and geographic space.

Mrs. Aresty's collection of cookbooks spans five centuries and represents most of the world's cultures. It includes 577 printed titles, thirteen manuscript cookbooks, and a collection of her papers.

This collection documents the extraordinary 64-year music career of Eugene Ormandy (1899-1985), best known for his long tenure with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Materials are available to researchers through the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.

The Fairman Rogers Collection at the University of Pennsylvania consists of over 1,000 titles, primarily focused on Rogers' interest in horses. It serves as a foundation for scholarly study of the role of the horse in the technical, scientific, and social evolution of nineteenth-century Europe and North America.

This collection of over 170 titles documents the earliest printing in Morocco. The bulk of the collection dates from 1865 to 1936, covering most of the span of Moroccan lithographic printing from its beginning in the city of Fez to its end during the French Protectorate.