History
Comprising nearly 250,000 volumes of American and Canadian poetry, plays, and vocal music, the Harris Collection of American Poetry and Plays is one of the largest collections of its kind in a research library. Begun in the mid-19th century by Brown graduate Albert Gorton Greene ’37, the collection assumed the unusual mission of acquiring every American poem and play ever printed, rather than just rare or finely-bound copies.
First edition Leaves of Grass with assorted letters signed by Whitman and reviews of the volume.
Owned by two additional Brown graduates after Greene’s death, the collection was donated to Brown in 1884 and endowed by Greene’s son-in-law in 1917. Since the Library’s acquisition of the collection, its holdings have grown significantly to include collections of Yiddish-American poetry and plays, African-American literature, Revolution-era hymnals and songsters, Walt Whitman and Edgar Allen Poe‘s works, fine printing and artist books, broadsides, and more.
Continuously acquiring every American poetry and play proves impossible in the 21st century, so Heather Cole, the curator of the Harris Collection, instead broadens the scope of what qualifies as “American” in the collection. To more conscientiously and comprehensively represent American identity, Cole seeks to add materials to the collection authored or created by historically underrepresented, marginalized, and minority groups.
Current Uses
The Harris Collection is used for a wide variety of historical and literary research on American and Canadian authors, cultural trends, and subject areas. The Harris includes materials that speak to current areas of interest, such as:
- African-American literature, including the works of early black poets and playwrights
- Sources for the Study of 19th and 20th Century Blackface Minstrelsy. This subset of the Harris collection includes songsters, plays and skits, and sheet music that depict blackface minstrelsy.
- A growing collection of LGBTQ+ literature
Title Page for The Tenth Muse, by Anne Bradstreet, printed 1650.
Other notable and unique materials include:
- Manuscripts media, such as recordings, tapes, and videos
- Latin American Poetry
- First edition of Anne Bradstreet’s “The Tenth Muse,” printed 1650.
- 1773 edition of Phillis Wheatley’s “Poems on Various Subjects“
- Ezra Pound’s “Imaginary Letters” (1930)
- Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” (1855)
- Inscribed copies of Robert Frost’s “Mountain Interval” (1916)
Access
Learn more about the Harris Collection’s holdings
Access the serial publications to which the Harris subscribes
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