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.

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 – April-May 2021

Manuscript Digest – April-May 2021 – 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. […]

May 4, 2021|

Recent Posts

Autographs I have Known: George Vogt

Manuscript Society members come from various backgrounds and quite diverse interests. Collectors, archivists, historians, dealers, universities, historical societies, private libraries and so many others. All have in common the love of paper: signed letters, manuscripts, photographs, preserving history in all of its forms. George Vogt, past president and fellow of [...]

June 3, 2019|

Society Board of Trustees – Class of 2022

In Boston, MA at the annual meeting of the Manuscript Society in April 2019, the general membership in attendance elected the following individuals to become the Class of 2022 to join the Board of Trustees. We are fortunate that some renewed their service and we have also added new members. [...]

May 20, 2019|

Stolen Alexander Hamilton Letter Found

An Alexander Hamilton letter written in 1780 has come to light. This handwritten signed letter is from Hamilton to the Marquis de Lafayette.  Lafayette, a general fighting for the American cause during the American Revolution is receiving British trip locations from Hamilton. It is one of many documents written by [...]

May 20, 2019|

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 [...]

April 15, 2019|

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 [...]

April 15, 2019|

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 [...]

February 26, 2019|
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