The Galvin Rare Book Room

The Galvin Rare Book Room houses some 25,000 books, broadsides, manuscripts, maps, newspapers, music scores, facsimiles, and photographs Among the collections are some 500 Confederate Imprints published between 1861-1865; rare facsimile volumes of The Books of Kells, the Mazarin edition of The Gutenberg Bible, The Lindesfarne Gospels, and Alfonso X's Cantigas De Santa Maria; and more than a 1,000 items, including autographed first editions, letters, photographs, manuscripts, and other memorabilia of Richmonder Mark Lutz and his close friend, Carl Van Vechten, the novelist and renowned New York Times music critic. There are also over a hundred volumes from the Dunlora Academy and the Virginia Baptist Seminary, the antecedents of the University of Richmond. More than 50% of the collections can be accessed through the UR Libraries online catalog. The Galvin Rare Book Room is open by appointment to anyone for legitimate research purposes.

Special Collections

The University Libraries' Special Collections are housed in the 1955 wing of Boatwright Library and are available for use by appointment only through the Reference Department. The collections include non-circulating materials which are separate from the libraries' main circulating collections because of their unique nature or value. Included are early materials on Richmond, Virginiana, and the South, faculty publications, specially autographed materials, late 19th and early 20th century literary and scholarly journals, 2 sets of Congressional papers, and unique out of print materials too fragile for the circulating collections.