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.

Featured

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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 – December 2022-January 2023

Manuscript Digest: December 2022 – January 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 […]

February 1, 2023|

Recent Posts

17th Century Letterlocking Letters Unlocked

Letterlocking Letterlocking used complicated folds to seal correspondence. (Unlocking History Research Group Archive) What do Mary Queen of Scots, Galileo, Marie Antoinette and Niccolò Machiavelli have in common? All practiced letterlocking! Letterlocking used complicated folds to seal correspondence.  Virtually hiding correspondence from prying eyes. Sometimes the recipient might [...]

March 4, 2021|

Interview: J.R.R. Tolkien Collection – Interview with Curator

Collecting Conversations: An Interview with William Fliss, Archivist of Special Collections and University Archives at Marquette University. Curator, J. R. R. Tolkien collection Kevin Segall William Fliss, Archivist of Special Collections and University Archives at Marquette University. Curator, J. R. R. Tolkien collection  J.R.R. Tolkien Collection - Marquette [...]

February 25, 2021|

Eckert Personal Papers Now at Huntington

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens has acquired the personal papers of Thomas T. Eckert (1825–1910). Left: “…get hold of Edison & keep him,” urged a promoter of Thomas Edison’s quadruplex telegraph to Thomas Eckert, president of the Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Co., in 1876. Thomas T. [...]

February 18, 2021|

William Henry Dorsey: Preserving Black History

William Henry Dorsey William Henry Dorsey was an African American of means who lived in 19th-century Philadelphia.  Like many others of his generations, he was bitten by the collecting and archiving bug. The son of Thomas Dorsey, an enslaved man who fled bondage in Maryland and secured his freedom in [...]

February 16, 2021|

1774 Congressional Pamphlet – You Found it Where?

For everyone who has every collected books, stamps, coins and certainly manuscripts you remember the moment.  You make one purchase and find an additional surprise. So it was for in William Leslie in 2014.  With time on his hands, a visit to an old bookstore.   Then a thin paper [...]

February 4, 2021|

1861 – Photograph of Lincoln Inauguration

Lincoln's Inaugural Photograph - May 4, 1861 Iconic photo of Lincoln’s first inauguration. Now believed to be taken by government photographer John Wood. LOC “The avenue in front of the portico was thronged with people, the crowd extending to a great distance on either side and reaching far [...]

January 23, 2021|

CIA released UFO documents

UFO Documents released After decades of Freedom of Information requests, approximately 2,780 pages of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents detailing the government entity’s findings on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) are now available for anyone to read and download. For UFO devotees this is an opportunity to see all of the [...]

January 23, 2021|
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