Introduction

          Mann Library Special Collections Reading Room                Mann Library holds historical primary sources on a variety of topics related to life sciences, agriculture, applied social sciences and human ecology. A growing number of selections from our rare and distinctive (RAD) collections are available online as digital collections. Many are presented as part of virtual exhibits. Many more are available through Cornell University Library's (CUL) Digital Collections portal. In the tabs of this guide, you will find these kinds of online primary sources from some of Mann Library's areas of strength as well as direction on finding more.

Many volumes originated from the personal libraries of great Cornell figures such as Liberty Hyde Bailey, Anna and John Henry Comstock, and Martha van Rensselaer. In several cases these bequests have become the basis of specialized collections of particular importance, including the Phillips Beekeeping Collection, Rice Poultry Collection, and the Language of Flowers Collection.

Other notable collections include lace, New York State agriculture, natural history and home economics, botany, evolution, genetics, ecology, agricultural economics, general agriculture and home economics, general natural history, textiles and costume history. 

Information about accessing and using these primary sources onsite and in-person is available through Mann Library's RAD Collections page. Information about primary sources from CUL's collection beyond Mann Library can be found on the Digital Rare And Distinctive Collections at Cornell LibGuide.

Cornell Library also subscribes to databases of historical primary sources for its library patrons.

Contact

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Michael Cook
Contact:
Head of Collections
Albert R. Mann Library