Welcome to The Manuscript Society

The Mission of the Manuscript Society is to encourage the collection and preservation of manuscripts and documents; to stimulate and aid collectors in their various collecting specialties; to facilitate the exchange of information and knowledge among collectors, scholars, dealers and the general public; and to promote the highest professional and ethical standards.

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Manuscript Mondays

The Manuscript Society is hosting monthly webinars on topics for collectors.  Each hour long webinar provides an opportunity to peek behind the scenes of valuations, writing & publishing, purchasing/selling, auctions and more.

Faneiul Hall in Boston, MA.

2026 Annual Meeting – Boston!

Join us in Boston for the Manuscript Society’s next Annual Meeting, taking place May 27–31, 2026. This year’s meeting coincides with Boston 250, the city’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution.

Pictures from the Manuscript annual trip to Oxford & Cambridge.

2025 Cambridge / Oxford Trip Recap

Over several days, Manuscript Society members explored some of the cities’ most storied libraries, museums, and archives—places that hold centuries of history and some of the world’s most extraordinary manuscripts.

Latest Digest

Digest March-April 2023

Manuscript Digest: March – April 2023 – 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 […]

April 4, 2023|

Recent Posts

How to Weed Your Attic: Is it History or Junk

How to Weed Your Attic Elizabeth H. Dow At the closing dinner of the Manuscript Society’s most recent annual meeting, trustee Elizabeth H. Dow gave us a capsule version of her latest book, How to Weed Your Attic: Getting Rid of Junk without Destroying History, coauthored with Lucinda P. Cockrell. [...]

May 19, 2021|

Quarantine: A Collector’s Story of Discovery

Quarantine: A Collector’s Story Stuart P. Embury, MD I’ve come to believe that the members of the Manuscript Society might have an advantage during these trying times. This hiatus has given collectors the opportunity to devote additional attention to their holdings. Just before the onset of the pandemic, I purchased [...]

April 26, 2021|

Rendell Collection on Forgery to Grolier Club

Forging History: The Detection of Forged Historical Manuscripts From The Grolier Club: March 2021, New York The Grolier Club Library is pleased to announce the receipt of a major gift, the Collection on the Detection of Forged Handwriting, which is the most important and comprehensive collection on the [...]

April 20, 2021|

Resources Available: Auctions, Values, Catalogs

Manuscript Society members are always looking for an item to complete a collection.  A letter, an image, a photograph, it does not matter.  What will be a fair price for the sought after piece? What about the provenance?  Where can I find many different catalogs?  It has always been a [...]

April 19, 2021|

One Really Bad Egg and a Visit to Calling Cards

Book Reviews: It is all about education. Whether you collect books or autographs or both, the educated collector is the savvy collector. Just ask Bill Butts. Every year a stream of reference works, how-tos, exhibition catalogs, bibliographies, and memoirs useful to collectors come on the market. Few receive scant attention [...]

April 1, 2021|

Handwriting – Something to Celebrate

January 23rd - National Handwriting Day Page of Manuscript - In Search of Lost Time - Marcel Proust - 1913   To hand write a letter or send an email. Maybe a text. Perhaps a tweet. How do you stay in contact with your friends and family? The [...]

March 10, 2021|

1795 Epidemic – A Doctor’s Diary

  Anderson’s record of the 238 yellow fever patients admitted to Bellevue between August and October 1795; 137 of them died. (Alexander Anderson Papers / New-York Historical Society Library) Anderson's Diary Highlights Epidemic "Word of the disease in New York City came “from every quarter.” The place was [...]

March 5, 2021|
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