Rauner Special Collections Library

Frederick Ransom was a member of the Class of 1820, though he did not reach graduation. We don't know much about him. He came from a loc...

On July 24, 1863, Rev. Nathan Lord resigned the presidency of Dartmouth College, an office he had held for thirty-five years. He gave it up ...

When traveling somewhere you do not speak the local language, what are the phrases you would prioritize learning? You can find countless phr...

We just had one of those "discovery" moments. We put that in quotes because the only reason we could make the discovery was becaus...

In 1876, Americans celebrated the centennial of the Declaration of Independence in grand fashion. For six months, millions of visitors flock...

When Dr . John Snow had the handles to London's Soho Broad Street public water pump removed in 1854 in an attempt to curb a cholera o...

1816 was a weird year for Dartmouth. The state of New Hampshire took over the school, transforming it into a public university and making ch...

Edmund and Mary Ann Brock had seven children, all born between 1868 and 1879. Each of their four sons and at least one of their daughters we...

In 1871, Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth officially opened for business. The fledgling school boasted just three students and one ...

Beyond punishment for social wrongs, imprisonment has long functioned to silence or remove voices from the public forum. As we have seen wit...

On a Tuesday in May of 1831, President Nathan Lord of Dartmouth sat down at his writing desk to pen an awkward letter to Reverend Jacob Cumm...

A couple of years ago, we were lucky enough to be near the path of totality for a total solar eclipse. Upper Valley residents may have dealt...

We have been posting to this blog regularly for nearly 17 years. For a long time it was twice a week, but then we switched to once a week. S...

In our opinion, sammelbands are one of the most curious books to be found in Special Collections libraries the world over. Derived from the ...

When Daniel Webster 1801 said that Dartmouth was a "small college," he wasn't kidding. These words, uttered during Webster...

This time of year, we're getting pretty wistful for spring. As such, we've been looking at books on flowers and we have a lovely one...

From the vantage point of 2026, women’s right to vote can seem like a foregone conclusion. Yet it took women almost 150 years from the found...

In addition to our current collections of phenomenal books and manuscripts, we are always collecting new amazing items that we know will be ...

When A Christmas Carol was published in 1843, it came with the subtitle "Being a ghost story of Christmas." Ghosts might not be t...

In the winter of 1810, Doctor Nathan Smith wrote from Hanover to a fellow physician in Philadelphia. Smith apologized for not writing sooner...