The Lilly Library
About this Page
The Lilly Library is Indiana University’s rare books and manuscripts library. We currently house over 450,000 books and 8.5 million manuscripts, including medieval manuscripts and literary archives. The Lilly is strong in many collecting areas, including early printed books, Latin Americana, children’s’ literature, cookbooks, and science and medicine. However, like so many other libraries, our collections were founded on white privilege, and the white, male experience remains overrepresented in our holdings. As such, we are admittedly lacking in books and archives by and for people of color; this is something which we continually try to remedy by adding to our collections and by seeking out and amplifying marginalized voices in the collections we already have. We believe it is important to acknowledge these shortcomings and the privilege upon which our library was built.
The examples below represent only a small sample of our holdings. Please contact our librarians for assistance in further searching our collections.
Resources from The Lilly Library
- Portuguese-Speaking DiasporaThe materials in this exhibition represent five centuries of the Portuguese-speaking diaspora with emphasis on history, literature, religion and the arts. Works originating in Brazil, India, China, Japan, and Africa are included.
- Documenting EmpireThis exhibition focuses on a collection of photographs kept by Hoosier Frank L. Crone, the American Director of Education in the Philippines from August 1913 to June 1916. Crone's photographs demonstrate the contradictory messages of the new American imperialism based on President William McKinley's plans for "benevolent assimilation" in the new colony.
- Ngugi mssThe Ngũgĩ mss. consist of the papers of Kenyan author, playwright, essayist, educator, and activist Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o.
- Sembene mssThe Sembène mss., 1956-2008, consist of the correspondence, photographs, writings, professional files, film scripts, and related material of filmmaker and author Ousmane Sembène.
- Latin American mss - Guatemala Music 1570-1635 (digitized)13 bound volumes and two fragments that were used in the pueblos of Santa Eulalia, San Juan Ixcoi, and San Mateo Ixtatan in the department of Huehuetenango in northwest Guatemala.
- Latin American mss - ParaguayMaterials related to the indigenous peoples and the Catholic missions of Paraguay.
- Baldwin mssThe letters of author James Baldwin, 1924-1987, to editor William Rossa Cole.
- Jones, L. mss and Jones, L. mss IIThe papers of poet and playwright Leroi Jones (Amiri Baraka). Collection I: Editorial office records of the magazines Yugen and The Floating Bear, for which Jones was an editor. Collection II: two plays by Leroi Jones.
- Poems on various subjects, religious and moral byCall Number: PS866 .W5 1773Publication Date: 1773Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglass, an American slave byCall Number: E449 .D737Publication Date: 1845Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- Frederick Douglass' paper. Vol. VII, no. 20 byCall Number: E449 .F49 1854Publication Date: 1854Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- Hotel keepers, head waiters, and housekeepers' guide byCall Number: TX925.C191 H83Publication Date: 1848Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- Narrative of Sojourner Truth : a northern slave, emancipated from bodily servitude by the state of New York, in 1828 byCall Number: E185.97.T87 N2Publication Date: 1850Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- The Bean Eaters byCall Number: PS3503.R725 B36Publication Date: 1960Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- Why we can't wait byCall Number: E185.61 .K54ISBN: Why we can't waitPublication Date: 1964Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- Guerrilla : free newspaper of the streetsCall Number: AP2 .G9Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
- The black student voiceCall Number: E185.61 .A258Publication Date: Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 1, 1968)-Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
Women, Race and Class by Call Number: HT1521 .D38 1981ISBN: 9780394510392Publication Date: 1981-12-01Blmgtn - Lilly Library (by appointment only)
