Manuscripts Research Guide
With over 1,400 collections and well over a million items, the Society's manuscripts span the years 1613-1930. Besides the Society's own archives, manuscripts are actively acquired in four areas of collection strength: American book history; New England diaries; papers of prominent early New Englanders in the political, religious, and military spheres; papers and records of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Central Massachusetts families, voluntary associations, and businesses.
How to Find
- Search the Catalog
Most manuscript collections have a record in the AAS Online Catalog. - Other Places to Search
- Finding aids for most individual collections are available online (links provided in the AAS Online Catalog)
- The Catalogue of the Manuscript Collections of the American Antiquarian Society (G.K. Hall, 1979)* is a printed version of an earlier manuscript card catalog and can be very helpful for finding item-level holdings
- Card catalogs* for some individual collections
Digital Access
- Freely Available (can look at from home):
- Scanned images are available for some manuscript collections, notably the Matthew Carey Papers, etc. (links provided in the AAS Online Catalog)
- By Subscription (must be at AAS or an institution that has purchased the digital product):
- Manuscript Women's Letters and Diaries from AAS, 1750-1950 (Alexander Street Press) has digitized many of the Society's manuscripts holdings written by women
Types of Collections
AAS Archives
American book trades collections
Central Massachusetts towns, businesses, voluntary association records
Diaries of New Englanders
Family papers for central Massachusetts families
