In addition to over three million manuscripts the CHS has an excellent bibliographic collection that covers the history of the state in all of its forms.

Some of our more significant collection areas include:

CHS has published a guide to its library and museum holdings relating to African American history. This book is available for purchase from the CHS and is also available online. Included among these holdings are the earliest known American broadside advertising for a runaway slave, publications and manuscripts by Phyllis Wheatley and Jupiter Hammond, the correspondence of Rebecca Primus, and other books and manuscripts.

The CHS collection of almanacs is nearly complete through 1820 with additional publications from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The earliest Connecticut almanacs were based upon calculations actually completed for Boston. Printers soon had original calculations made for Connecticut. Nearly all of the state’s major publishers issued almanacs.

Early Connecticut bookbinding was a workmanlike business. In the early nineteenth-century, however, the Hartford firm of Andrus & Judd did produce noteworthy bindings that had influence beyond the state; the CHS’s museum holds many of the actual binding tools used by that firm. The CHS’s collections include hundreds of Connecticut bindings ranging from unadorned covers during the eighteenth century to the elaborate bindings in the nineteenth century.

Connecticut has been home to many celebrated authors, from the Hartford Wits to Lydia Sigourney to Ike Marvel. The CHS does not collect modern Connecticut authors except selectively and does not collect Mark Twain or Harriet Beecher Stowe. But for those authors it does collect, the CHS seeks to collect editions of their works and their manuscripts, including letters, diaries, and holograph copies of their works.

The CHS library has several distinguished collections of American books and periodicals for children.

The Bates Collection of some 2,000 items (assembled by former CHS librarian Albert Carlos Bates) is comprised chiefly of publications issued prior to 1835. It features publications of Sidney Babcock (New Haven, CT), Mahlon Day and Kiggins & Kellogg (New York City), and H. & E. Phinney (Cooperstown, NY). Other highlights of the Bates Collection include the 1848 Onderdonk issue of A Visit From St. Nicholas and a rare Confederate juvenile by M. T. Williams issued in Richmond in 1863.

The Caroline Hewins Collection, concentrating on the period 1820-1918, is especially strong in the area of juvenile periodicals and gift-books. Among its treasures are three issues of an otherwise unknown children’s magazine issued by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Cincinnati in 1841 and a first edition of Uncle Remus . This collection, which comprises about 3,000 items, documents the evolution of writing, design, and binding styles in nineteenth-century children’s books.

Prominent among producers of mid-twentieth century children’s books was the Hartford firm of Case, Lockwood and Brainard (later, Connecticut Printers). Harpers, Viking, Scribners, Macmillan and many other publishing houses employed Case during the 1950s and 1960s to print their colorful children's books. The Connecticut Printers’ Archive Collection includes extensive sampling of the company's books for children, together with editorial and production notes regarding their design.

In addition to its named collections, the CHS’s Connecticut Imprints and Juvenile collections include extensive holdings of children's literature printed in Connecticut or written by Connecticut authors. They include such diverse works as the first children’s magazine issued in the United States, a children’s pictorial edition of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, with music (Boston: 1853), the works of Samuel G. Goodrich (Peter Parley) and his imitators, the colorful McLoughlin Brothers chapbooks, and the writings of contemporary Connecticut writers for children. Both the Imprints and Juvenile collections are continually being expanded by new accessions.

CHS's collection of material printed in Connecticut is the largest in existence, containing hundreds of unique items. A major printing and publishing center in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by 1900 the state had lost its prominence as a center for job printing, and the number of Connecticut imprints after that date falls off significantly. The last large commercial printer in the state was Connecticut Printers, which closed in the 1980s. By various absorptions and mergers that had taken place over the years, that firm was the embodiment of many of Hartford's former printing firms, such as Case, Lockwood & Brainard. The firm gave the CHS its file copies of books it had printed or inherited over the years, so the record of its accomplishments is preserved.

Connecticut’s Hartford Courant is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the U.S. still in existence. The CHS’s holdings of this paper in hard copy, although incomplete, are the largest such file in existence. (We have a complete run on microfilm, through the generosity of The Hartford Courant Foundation.) Holdings of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century newspapers published in Connecticut are extensive. CHS does not, however, collect contemporary newspapers, which are collected by the Connecticut State Library.

The industrial tradition and Yankee ingenuity of Connecticut is well represented in the library collections. These collections include over 2,000 account books from various enterprises, such as general stores or shoemakers. Hundreds of printed trade catalogues record manufactured items such as fine silver plate from the Meriden Brittania Company, machine tools, printing presses, and wooden display type.

Connecticut citizens have long been interested in the history of the towns and locales where they reside. Many have left written records of their interest, both published and manuscript. (Although CHS’s collection of Connecticut local histories is its largest, it also holds numerous local histories from the other New England states.) Connecticut’s John Warner Barber was instrumental in the establishment of local history as a field of endeavor. The library holds a comprehensive collection of his works and many of his prospectuses and subscription books. (The museum holds many of his ink wash sketches.) Connecticut local histories continue to be published and CHS seeks to collect this material comprehensively.

The history of the European encounter with the indigenous populations is well documented in CHS’s collections, which include, for example, a nearly complete collection of the so-called Eliot Indian Tracts, the papers of Samson Occom, first Indian missionary in New England, and a 17th century map of the tribes of Connecticut.

Connecticut has extensive resources for the study of its political history. Our collections contain the papers of Gideon Welles, a significant figure in Connecticut politics and Lincoln’s Secretary of the Navy. Although most of his official papers are held by the National Archives, CHS has important collections of his personal papers, including several of his diaries. The personal papers of many other prominent Connecticut political figures are also in the CHS’s library. Included among such figures are Jeremiah Wadsworth and George Seymour. Shown on the left is a patriotic address in the hand of the Rev. Thomas Robbins, who became CHS’s first librarian in 1844.

Connecticut’s established religion was Congregationalism until 1818. However, CHS seeks to document and preserve all religions practiced in the state. The library holds printed and manuscript sermons, church histories, and other materials relating to the religious history of Connecticut.

The library collects travel accounts of people who have visited the state and also of those state residents who have travelled to other destinations. European travelers include Jacques Pierre Brissot de Warville, the Count de Luzan, and Saint Jean de Crevecoeur. Connecticut travellers include John Ledyard, Joel Barlow, and Jonathan Carver. The library also contains manuscripts and printed materials relating to the activities of Connecticut land companies that promoted immigration to New Connecticut and the Wyoming territory, as well as travel accounts and other materials relating to those Connecticut colonies in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Shown above is the front page of Joel Barlow’s holograph manuscript of his translation into English of Brissot de Warville’s New Travels .