Rare Book Collection

Viewing Rare Materials

The Library's holdings of rare materials can be found in the Library Catalog by using an advanced keyword search and limiting by "B8: Rare". 

Access to materials in the Rare Book Collection is by appointment only. To make an appointment to view rare material, please complete our Rare Book Collection Access Form. Please note that we require two business days notice for Rare Book and Rare Folio requests.

Watch this video on printing techniques to get a behind-the-scenes look at the Museum’s Rare Book Collection.

About the Rare Book Collection

The Library's Rare Book and Rare Folio Collection developed from a need to protect and preserve the Library's valuable research materials. As the Library grew and more time passed, a sizable number of books could be designated as rare. This collection now includes almost 15,000 volumes and continues to form an integral part of the Museum's research facilities, especially in the study of systematics. The Collection includes field diaries and scrapbooks; richly illustrated, fragile, or uniquely bound materials; limited and/or autographed editions; published and unpublished works with special Museum association; materials of high monetary value; and rare books relevant to natural history, especially in those fields of interest at the Museum.

Rare Book Collection

Click each image to view.

  Parasitic wasps from Amédée Lepeletier de Saint-Fargeau, Histoire naturelle des insectes     Cicadas, planthoppers, and lantern bugs with detail from Guérin-Méneville, Iconographie du règne animal de G. Cuvier     Katydids from Dumont d'Urville, Voyage au pole sud et dans l'Océanie sur les corvettes l'Astrolabe et la Zélée     Folio depicting several species of mantises from Saussure, Études sur les myriapodes et les insectes, open in the Rare Folio Room of the American Museum of Natural History Library     Tropical wrasses from Jordan's The fishes of Samoa     Pair of Falco esalon tending to their young, Birds of Great Britain     Thylacinus cynocephalus, The mammals of Australia     Camelopardis giraffe, plate 28     Diphyllodes respublica (Wilson's bird of paradise)  

View complete collection.

David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Research Library and Learning Center