Special Collections

An inside look into reclassifying and describing an early geography of the world with woodcut maps, portraits, diagrams, and other illustrations that depict the world as it was known in 1628.

Jenna Hershberger explores the omnipresent moon imagery in a recent acquisition, the Josephine W. Shinholser Collection of Sheet Music.

In honor of Banned Books Week, Ute Schechter explores censorship and early modern science through an investigation of a clandestine edition of Galileo's Dialogo.

Tracy Melton '85, member of the William & Mary Libraries Board of Directors, considers the words we use to describe crime and death in archival work. Read on to learn more about a nineteenth-century fatality recounted in the Galt Papers.

A 1677 document in Special Collections explores how the British used print and language to both build relationships with and exert control over Native peoples.

In 1574, as well as the rest of her reign, Queen Elizabeth I’s place as England’s monarch was continually challenged based on her mother’s reputation, her lack of a husband, her religion, and her gender. Even as one of the most powerful women in the 16th century, she still needed to prove herself.

Do you keep your receipts? Special Collections has a good number of receipts and these seemingly mundane documents can provide valuable insight into early Virginians’ lives.

L'abbé Antoine Banier and his Mythology are unique in the position they take on the historical nature of myth and legend. Banier was a proponent of euhemerism, a school of thought that claims myths, legends, and folklore all have real historical basis.

Joe Catanzaro explains a pivotal moment in cartography captured in our collections.

Abolition was not a radical nineteenth century idea that miraculously emerged from the political ideologies of the Age of Revolution. A 1767 address from Arthur Lee of Virginia serves as a reminder that the abolitionist movement did not have a linear trajectory, and that individuals protested slavery throughout its existence.