Featured
Latest Digest
Digest – January & February 2024
Manuscript Digest: January – February 2024 – This complimentary e-digest, now published bi-monthly, covers significant acquisitions and sales, manuscripts lost and found, rare books and ephemera, document conservation, and more news in this digest […]
Recent Posts
MM On-Demand: A Virtual Beach Party – You Ask! (08/01/22)
Keeping cool in August We’ll open up to a virtual gathering of friends, lively discussion, and a show and tell. Get your camera & mic ready (if you wish) - We’ll ALL be live! Show us a favorite item in your collection Ask questions about collecting Share a short [...]
LeNie Adolphson – 2022 Research Grant Winner
2022 Maass Research Grant Awarded This year’s Maass Research Grant goes to a scholar looking at the struggle for health equity through the long lens of one Chicago hospital. LeNie Adolphson is examining “Health Care in the Black Metropolis: A History of Provident Hospital, 1891–1960.” Provident was the first Black-owned [...]
Interview: Barton Smith on Collecting
Smith Interview - Collecting Manuscripts The Fellowship of American Bibliophilic Societies (FABS) was founded in 1993 as a “society of societies” whose members are the clubs themselves. As members of The Manuscript Society, you have already “joined” FABS. You, as a Manuscript Society Member, receive the twice-yearly publication, the FABS [...]
Forgotten No More: Honoring Revolutionary War Veterans
Like many collectors, the Covid-19 pandemic forced me to stay home more than usual. I’ve re-read favorite books, completed nagging home projects, and delved deep into researching letters and documents in my collection.
Six Medieval Illuminations that Amaze
Medieval Illuminated Manuscript - credit: AJF and Almay Stock Photo Illuminations – 6 that will amaze you Beautiful Illuminations : A picture can indeed say more than a thousand words, and the humans of Medieval Europe knew this well! Works of religion, prayer, bestiaries, or herbaria all found [...]
2021 Award Winning Biography: General John A. Rawlins: No Ordinary Man
The Manuscript Society announces, Allen Ottens, society member and past president, has won the 2021 Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for his biography, General John A. Rawlins: No Ordinary Man. Allen Ottens The AHF Distinguished Writing Awards program established in 1997, recognizes authors who make a [...]
MM On-Demand: Dead Letter Office Photos – The Civil War’s Lost Sentiments (07/05/22)
Benton Barracks-Dead Letter 1044 During the Civil War years, hundreds of thousands of young soldiers wrote letters home. The soldiers, often poorly educated, had never even addressed a letter. The recipient’s name and address on the envelopes were undecipherable. Sweeping changes to postage requirements and the interruption of [...]





