Maury A. Bromsen Lincoln Collection

In 2006, the Hay Library received a large bequest of materials relating to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War from the estate of Boston book dealer Maury A. Bromsen. The collection included a significant array of prints and ephemera from the period, along with books, pamphlets, sheet music, sound recordings, period newspapers, portraits, and manuscripts. Among the key items included in the bequest were the original copper plates and full sets of prints from the Confederate War Etchings series by Maryland artist Adalbert Volck, substantial sets of manuscripts of Confederate General P.T.G.Beauregard and Union General George B. McClellan, and a set of the copy plates made by George Ayres from the original glass plate negatives created during an 1860 photo shoot by Chicago photographer Alexander Hesler.

Bromsen was an assiduous collector, and his own papers, which comprise part of the bequest, reveal his collecting activities as well as his efforts to place important items in public institutions.

Format(s): Books, Pamphlets, Manuscripts, Broadsides, Sheet Music, Museum Objects, Graphics, Letters, Documents, Scrapbooks
Library: John Hay

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Access to the collection:

Online Catalog (BruKnow):
Individual records for most printed materials available on BruKnow
Maury A. Bromsen papers

Other Online Access:
Other: Digital Bookplate: The Lincoln Bequest of Maury A. Bromsen

In-house Access to the Collection:
Typescript Inventory

Related Collections:
Lincoln (Abraham) Collection
Volck (Adalbert) Confederate Etchings Collection
Civil War Manuscripts Collection