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

Manuscript Mondays featured image.

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.

Exterior of the Chicago Museum.

2027 Annual Meeting – Chicago!

Plans are underway for The Manuscript Society’s 2027 Annual Meeting in Chicago!

SAVE THE DATES:  📅 May 12–16, 2027

Join us in the Windy City for another memorable gathering of Manuscript Society members. We’re planning special behind-the-scenes visits and exclusive access just for our members.

Stay tuned for more details—we can’t wait to see you in Chicago!

Manuscript with pen on a piece of paper

Maass Research Scholarship

The Manuscript Society is awarding $10,000 for the 2027 Richard Maass Research Grant.

Are you a graduate student whose research uses original manuscripts? Now is the time to apply. The full $10,000 award goes to one student to help cover expenses directly related to their research—including travel, lodging, meals, document reproduction, and more.

Apply now and put $10,000 toward your research.

Latest Digest

Digest: October – November 2022

Manuscript Digest:  October – November 2022 – 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 … […]

November 3, 2022|

Recent Posts

The Book of Lismore is Back in Cork

The Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement are donating The Book of Lismore to University College Cork. Created in the late 15th century, this major medieval manuscript is from the golden age of Irish literature.  It is one of the Great Books of Ireland. The Book of Lismore @artdaily [...]

November 1, 2020|

National Woman’s Party Archive Donated

l00th Anniversary Timed to coordinate with the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment, The Library of Congress is doubling the library’s holdings related to the National Woman's Party.  Already in the LOC's holdings are 200,000 items from the NWP. This valuable donation unites the remaining archive of 300,000 documents, photographs, [...]

October 31, 2020|

Maass Research Grant for 2021 Suspended

2021 Grant Cancelled As a result of the Pandemic, scholars are having difficulty contacting and accessing manuscript collections around the world. Consequently, the Board of the Manuscript Society has voted NOT to award the Maass Grant of $5,000 to a graduate student in the spring of 2021. Hopefully, the application [...]

October 30, 2020|

Interview: Alfred Lemmon

Collecting Conversations: An interview with Alfred Lemmon, Director of the Williams Research Center of The Historic New Orleans Collection by Beverly Hill Alfred Lemmon, Director of Williams Research Center, HNOC BH: What does your position as director of the Williams Research Center entail?  AL: One of the aspects [...]

October 7, 2020|

Gauguin’s manuscript ‘Avant et après’

A unique and richly illustrated text by the French Post-Impressionist artist Paul Gauguin comes to the United Kingdom. Part-memoir and part-manifesto, the 213-page manuscript, titled Avant et après (Before and after) reveals important insights into Gauguin's life. This includes his relationships and thoughts plus numerous drawings and prints by the [...]

September 25, 2020|

2017 Feltham Theft – 200 items Recovered

January 2017 - at a Depot in Feltham, near London. Repelling down and back up ropes, the thieves stole 200 centuries-old books. First editions of Galileo and Newton, a text by Italian scholar Petrarch, rare versions of Dante, plus, 80 sketches by Spanish painter Francisco de Goya were among the [...]

September 24, 2020|

Americana is a Creed & Celluloid Paper Trail, reviews

As Bill Butts says, “It is all about education."  The educated collector is the savvy collector. Each year reference works, how-tos, exhibition catalogs, bibliographies, and memoirs useful to collectors are published. Unfortunately, they receive little attention in the media.  Bill takes the time to review 3 to 6 books in [...]

September 21, 2020|
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