John Carter Brown Library
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[edit] Address and Contact Info
Address: Box 1894, Providence, RI 02912
Phone: (401) 863-2725
Fax: (401) 863-3477
E-mail: JCBL_Information@brown.edu
Web page: http://www.JCBL.org
Director: Ted Widmer
Online Finding Aid:
Archivists (principal contacts for advice on the collection):
[edit] Hours and usage restrictions
The library is open to any qualified readers who may require the use of its materials from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays.
[edit] Collection Summary
The John Carter Brown Library is an outstanding collection of primary materials relating to virtually all aspects of the European discovery, exploration, settlement, and development of the New World. From its beginnings in 1846, the library has grown to include 60,000 printed books, major collections of maps and prints, and a large number of codices. (Archival manuscripts, however, generally fall outside the library’s collecting policy.) While terminal dates vary from area to area, the collections range from the late 15th century to about 1825, when direct European involvement in American affairs came to an end. Approximately 20 percent of the collection consists of books printed before 1700. The following survey, by no means exhaustive, suggests some applications of these resources.
The original European travel narratives concerning both North and South America, from the early Spanish chronicles onwards, are substantially complete and form the point of departure for the collection. Numerous works dealing with native peoples of North and South America, including both printed and manuscript works on Indian languages, offer opportunities for work in anthropology, archaeology, and linguistics. A wide range of colonial architecture books, prints on American themes, and English cartoons and caricatures from the 18th century are available to art historians. Economic history is widely represented in works illustrating the impact of the Americas on economic theory, commerce, investment, landholding, monetary policies, taxation, and labor. A large group of cosmographical and geographical works, atlases, and maps offers unusual opportunities for research in the history of geography and cartography. Maritime history is also one of the library’s specialties, as is the history of Brazil. The library holds early editions of literary works on New World themes by English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, and Dutch authors. Numerous legal works reflect the response of European legal systems to the growth of overseas empires and in particular deal with the development of international law. A major collection centers on the adaptation of religion and religious institutions to the New World, with particular strength in works concerning the activities of the Franciscans, the Jesuits, and other missionary orders, and of Puritans and Anglicans in New England. An important group of works on natural history records the appearance of American plants and their use as food and medicine. Pamphlet literature of the U.S. Revolution for Independence is a library specialty, and the library holds the largest collection in the United States of printed material relating to the Chilean revolution for independence in the early 19th century. The library owns an unsurpassed collection of works printed in Mexico and Peru, especially for the period before 1800, and the most extensive collection in the United States of printed materials relating to the Haitian Revolution for independence.
These primary materials are supported by a large bibliographical reference collection and are extended by the collections of the Brown University libraries.
[edit] Usage Discussion
Suggestions for approaching the material:
Housing and getting by for less in the area:
