Overview:For more than a century Duke University and its predecessor institutions have collected rare and special library materials. As early as the 1890s the Trinity College Historical Society began assembling manuscripts and other primary materials. With the founding of Duke University in 1924, the need for such materials to support research by graduate students and faculty increased. The Manuscript Department was established in 1931, and the Rare Book Department was formally organized in December 1942. In subsequent years faculty members, private donors, and curators of manuscripts and rare books all contributed in substantial ways to the building of the departments' holdings.
Between 1989 and 1992 the two departments were combined to form the present Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library. The merger emphasizes the interrelatedness of the manuscript and rare book holdings and the inclusion of other formats of materials, such as broadsides, pamphlets, sheet music, maps, photographs, films, videotapes, and sound recordings.
With the founding of the Digital Scriptorium in 1993, the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library began the process of making its holdings and information about its holdings more accessible via the World Wide Web.
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