“And this is Grip, the raven,” my guide said, gesturing toward a stuffed bird encased in ornate glass. “She belonged to Charles Dickens — mischievous in life, stuffed in death, perched above his desk.” She told us that Dickens included Grip as a character in Barnaby Rudge. Edgar Allan Poe read it and thought he could do better. “And so came his poem, ‘The Raven,’” she added.
I stared at the bird, awed. In all my travels, I’ve never felt so in the presence of a literary omen. However, I wasn’t in a museum or a ticketed exhibit, but a rare book room tucked away inside the Free Library of Philadelphia — open to the public, free of charge.
Grip, the raven once owned by Charles Dickens. Photo: Free Library of Philadelphia/Will Brown
My tour guide, warm and witty, led us through an Egyptian papyrus scroll from the Book of the Dead, a cuneiform tablet, illuminated medieval texts, and original sketches from Beatrix Potter, who created the Peter Rabbit books. She fielded our enthusiastic interruptions with good humor.
“I heard Grip died of lead poisoning,” piped up an enthusiastic bibliophile.
“Likely true,” she replied.“After biting one of Dickens’ children, she was banished to a shed where she may have gotten into lead paint.”
The tour ended in a wood-paneled sanctuary, holding the reassembled library of a wealthy book collector and Dickens fan. Against one wall rested Charles Dickens’ original writing desk.
Spending an afternoon on a rare book tour hadn’t been my idea. With only two days to spend in Philadelphia, it sounded like a musty waste of precious time. But that hour turned out to be one of the most memorable parts of our trip.
For book lovers, rare book rooms are a dopamine boost
Powell’s Rare Book Room in Portland, OR. Photo; Powell’s Rare Book Room
On the third floor of the world’s largest bookstore, Powell’s City of Books in downtown Portland, the rare book room inspires reactions so strong that Rare Book Specialist Kirsten Berg keeps tissues handy. A teacher might see a signed edition of a Robert Frost poem they’ve taught in class, or a first printing of To Kill a Mockingbird, and slowly tear up, she says. I understand the sentiment. Seeing Beatrix Potter’s original sketches in person moved me too, though I admit I didn’t cry.
Berg defines a rare book room as a space dedicated to significant books worth preserving. But she stresses that they’re also places that shine a light on human history and self-expression.
Barbara Basbanes Richter, a former columnist for Fine Books and Collections, ghostwriter, and literacy startup entrepreneur, says that rare books can be an antidote to the digital era, serving as reminders of our shared lineage. “With rare books, we’re really only temporary custodians of these things,” she says. “You might be touching a book that was owned by Abraham Lincoln when he was learning his ABCs in the log cabin. That’s pretty special.”
A reminder that there’s more than the digital world
The rare book Reading Room at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Photo: The Folger Shakespeare Library
With technology taking over so many aspects of daily life, Richter reflects, many of us are wondering about our place in the world. Rare book rooms are where we can remind ourselves that not everything is happening online.
Though it’s true we can find most reading materials digitized, Greg Prickman, Folger Shakespeare Library’s Eric Weinmann Librarian and Director of Collections, cautions against assuming that everything important is online. “Anybody who limits their research or their experience of rare books to what is available digitally is missing an enormous amount,” he advises. For him, rare books answer a modern hunger for something “real, physical, tangible and, dare I say, historical, something that has borne witness to other times and places and still exists.”
Rare book rooms are a great way to learn about a city’s past
The writer in the Philadelphia rare book room, and a Fraktur manuscript, circa 1833. Photo: Krisann Valdez
Rare book rooms often house collections tied to the local citizens. That was the case with the recreated library in Philadelphia. And in San Diego, it’s artifacts and texts from the first missions.
But collections can also immerse you in a particular time or place. Take the Folger Shakespeare Library, for example. Located in Washington, DC, the library has little to do with American history. Instead, it holds the world’s largest collection of the First Folios – the first collections of Shakespeare’s works, published just a few years after his death. Of the 82 copies the library owns, no two are exactly alike, and they hint to the history and interests of those who owned them. The Folger Shakespeare Library also houses material from others who lived during Shakespeare’s time, such as diaries, recipe books, and materials written by others. Together, they help paint a picture of what life was like in Elizabethan England (the period from roughly 1550 to 1600).
In fact, the Folger’s Reading Room was designed to resemble an Elizabethan Great Hall. Prickman offers a word of advice for people immediately after entering the room: just take it in. He encourages visitors to remember the decades of history and people that have come into the room to study. “If you just take a minute and experience the room and how it sounds and how it looks, how the lights move through the stained glass,” Prickman says, “you become attuned with this awe-inspiring space.”
Balancing public interest with artifact preservation
Cuneiform inscriptions on clay tablet, circa 2300 BCE, owned by the Hervey Family Rare Book Room in San Diego. Photo: San Diego Public Library Digital Archives
The challenge for curators in rare book rooms is satisfying public curiosity while simultaneously protecting fragile items from light, humidity, and handling.
For instance, a 13th-century Bible might only appear briefly each year. “Even though we have sunblocked windows, shade, and film on the windows,” says Matthew Nye, Special Collections Manager at the Hervey Family Rare Book Room in San Diego. “We don’t want to expose it to the light, period.” He explained that every piece has its own prescription of how long and when it can make an appearance, based on factors like age, interest, and materials.
In many rare book rooms, items rotate every few months, meaning visitors may see something new each time.
How to visit a rare book room
The Morgan Library in NYC. Photo: EWY Media/Shutterstock
It may be easier to visit a rare book room than you expect. They’re usually free (or close to it), tucked into libraries and bookstores in cities worldwide. Most are filled with treasures many travelers would pay good money to behold in a museum.
But there’s a common caveat: access varies. Some rare book rooms are strictly for scholarly use, while others require reservations. It’s best to research and plan in advance, but don’t let reservation requirements and limitations make you think you’re not welcome. “Once there, you’re among fellow book lovers who are often enthusiastic to show you the materials,” says Richter.
Some, though, are more flexible. The San Diego Central Library’s Hervey Family Rare Book Room is open during library hours. Visitors can meander in at their leisure, provided a docent is present. However, Nye does recommend calling ahead to request a tour, as it will make the experience more meaningful.
One of the few surviving “First Folios” of William Shakespeare’s works. Photo: Lewis Tse/Shutterstock
Prickman of the Folger Shakespeare Library stresses that the room is for everyone to appreciate and enjoy. Guests are advised to book a pay-what-you-want timed-entry pass to visit the library’s publicly accessible exhibition halls, or book a $25 group tour to visit the Elizabethan Theatre or reading room. Items from the rare book room also make it into the public exhibition halls on a rotating, regular basis. Visitors on research missions can register for access to the full collections, with recommendations on how to request materials in advance available online.
Visitors to Powell’s Rare Book Room in Portland must request a pass from the information counter, available for timed entries between 10 AM and 5 PM. Burton Barr’s Rare Book Room in Phoenix, Arizona, is open by appointment only, with occasional public events and tours.
However, one rule is the same in all rare book rooms: mind your manners. Rare books rooms aren’t merely backdrops for photography or live streaming. Instead, engage with the material and treat the space (and books and items) respectfully.
Rare book rooms to visit around the country
Photo: BearFotos/Shutterstock
Skip a rare book room, and you miss seeing up close cuneiform, Dickens’ desk, or a legendary taxidermied raven. Save an afternoon for one, and you’ll walk away with an intimate experience that a crowded museum can’t match.
- Grolier Club (New York, New York)
- Morgan Library (New York, New York)
- Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, DC)
- Cotsen Children’s Library, Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey)
- Mortimer Rare Book Room, Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts)
- Houghton Library, Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
- Boston Public Library (Boston, Massachusetts)
- Boston Athenaeum (Boston, Massachusetts)
- Hervey Family Rare Book Room (San Diego, California)
- Powell’s City of Books (Portland, Oregon)
- Burton Barr Library (Phoenix, Arizona)
- American Library (Paris, France)
- London Library at St. James Square (London, England)
