American Antiquarian Society
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS), located in Worcester, Massachusetts, is both a learned society and national research library of pre-twentieth century American History and culture. Its mission has been to collect, preserve and make available for study all printed records of what is now known as the United States of America, from first European settlement through the year 1876. They offer programs for professional scholars, pre-collegiate, undergraduate and graduate students, educators, professional artists, writers, genealogists, and the general public.
Their library collections encompass more than three million books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, graphic arts materials and manuscripts housed within twenty-five miles worth of shelving. The collection contains two out of three of the total books known to have been printed in what is now the United States from the establishment of the first press in 1640 to 1820. All fifty U.S. states, most of Canada and the British West Indies are included in their preeminent repository, which was founded in 1812 as the third oldest historical society and the first to be national in scope.
