Overview

The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections (RMC) is Cornell’s principal repository of rare books, manuscripts, and archival materials. The Division holds over 500,000 printed volumes, more than 80 million manuscripts, and another million photographs, prints, artifacts, and other visual media. Images span topics reflecting the strengths of our collections, such as literature and art, the history of science, natural history and technology, the history of the book, photography and graphic design, the history of architecture, 19th and 20th century reform movements, African American history, gender and sexuality, food, wine and culinary history, contemporary music, along with the social, intellectual, and political history of Europe, the Americas, and Asia. RMC is also home to Cornell University’s archives.

In addition to the cross section of items from RMC found in this digital collection, many of our subject strengths are represented with focused digital collections. Digitized collections on hip hop, punk, persuasive maps, political campaign memorabilia, witchcraft, Native American languages, photographs of African American life, Iceland, and more can be browsed on Cornell Library’s Digital Collections site.

Terms and Conditions

The images in this collection are made available for private study, scholarship, or research use only. Materials from the collections covered under copyright cannot be published or exhibited without obtaining the legally required permission from the copyright holder. In many cases, the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections is owner of the physical object only. It is the obligation of the researcher to fulfill the requirements of the copyright law.

For information on obtaining high-resolution copies of images or permission to publish, please visit our Reproductions & Permissions page.

If you are the author or copyright owner and believe our web site has not properly attributed your work to you, we want to hear from you. Please contact rareref@cornell.edu with your contact information and a link to the relevant content.