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Find Out More!2019 Annual Meeting
in Boston Massachusetts
April 24 - 27, 2019
Handson History - American Antiquarian Society -
Find Out More!2019 Annual Meeting
in Boston Massachusetts
April 24 - 27, 2019
Abraham Lincoln. [First inaugural address]. [Springfield, Illinois: Privately printed, January-February, 1861]. Proof sheets, extensively revised in the hand of John George Nicolay, 1861. Houghton Library -
Find Out More!2019 Annual Meeting
in Boston Massachusetts
April 24 - 27, 2019
Battle of Britain exhibit - International World War II Museum
The Manuscript Society is an international organization of persons and institutions devoted to the collection, preservation, use and enjoyment of autographs and manuscripts.
Welcome to the Manuscript Society website.
Manuscripts…… the word sounds a bit old fashioned, coming from the late 16th century: from the medieval Latin manuscriptus, from manu ‘by hand’ + scriptus ‘written’. A manuscript can be a book, a legal document, a piece of hand-written music, a typed or printed letter, a text, or even a drawing. The meaning of “manuscripts” evolved when the printing press was invented and today we include typed letters and documents as manuscripts. If one is lucky there is a signature too.
Medieval manuscripts, often illustrated, were entirely made by hand, the drawings and the words. Those documents we love to read and handle cover most of written history: the Dead Sea Scrolls, writings of Aristotle, the notes and drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, letters from Napoleon to Josephine, letters from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, correspondence between Manet and Monet, soldiers’ letters home to loved ones, and love letters from dad to mom. Thoughts, ideas, moments shared and written on paper, parchment, or vellum, are there for us to read.
It is love for the written words that drives so many of our members, looking for the next piece to add to a collection. Members are collectors, some are dealers, some archivists; all are passionate students of the history revealed in manuscripts, and interested in sharing their knowledge. In 2015 The Society’s Constitution was updated. The purposes of The Manuscript Society are as valid now as when first written in 1948: to encourage the association of interested individuals and institutions, to promote the mutual interest in manuscripts, to encourage the use of manuscripts for research and publication, to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge about manuscripts, to foster the preservation of manuscript material of all kinds, and to foster ethical conduct in the commerce of manuscripts.
As you click through the site you will find pages dedicated to our ongoing projects: Scholarship, Replevin, Hall of Distinction and of course our Annual Meeting. The Collectors Corner has been expanded and is a free, public resource from The Manuscript Society for collectors (of all types). This section of the website includes resources, tips, and information in the world of manuscripts. We will grow this section as members share their knowledge with others. Joining or renewing your membership is easy as can be and you can easily support the society through many of our programs: Scholarship Fund, Annual Fund and Angel Fund.
A very special addition to the website is our Members Only section. Here you will be able to access past issues of The Manuscript Society News, and Manuscripts. The Directory of Members will be here as well as Forums for communicating with each other and sharing upcoming events.
Please take a moment to click around the site and see all that is available to you as a member of the society and a collector of autographs and manuscripts.
Latest Digest
Digest – April 2019
Manuscript Digest –April 2019– This complimentary e-digest, launched in 2012, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more.
Recent Posts
Computer Analysis meets Beowulf
Beowulf! How many of us remember our school days reading, or at least trying to read, “classics” like Beowulf, Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales or Shakespeare’s King Lear. Even today, research continues on authorship, writing styles, the meanings of words, syntax and so much more. Beowulf, believed to have been composed around 1000 was first published in […]
500 Year Old Catalog and Vanishing Books
Books vanishing into the ether world. Unknown until now. All discovered from a lost volume now found! No, it is not from the world of Harry Potter. The 500 year old Libro de los Epítomes is the catalog for Hernando Colón’s 16th-century collection. His library was to be the biggest in the world. Amazingly the […]
Randall Salas: Collecting Autographs with a Twist
He began collection in 1959. But not the usual letters. They were Time Magazines. He would send them off asking the person to autograph their cover image. His name is Randall Salas. He began at age 17 from Caracas. With over 1500 issues in his collection he has seen many changes in the world and […]
The Search Continues: Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions
In 1848 women gathered in Seneca Falls, New York to consider not only voting rights, but the conditions of women in society at large. The result was the drafting and signing of the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions. The issues were not new. Abigail Adams in a now famous letter to her husband John written […]
IRS Updates Requirements on Appraisals and Appraisers
In November, 2017, Manuscript Society Member, Stuart Lutz, wrote an article, Can I Deduct that? An Introduction to Appraisals for the society journal, Manuscripts. He included the proposed parameters issued by the IRS. Stuart noted new requirements for appraisers and outlined questions collectors needed to ask of appraisers and the limitations on valuation. For the […]
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