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Graphic Arts
The graphic arts collections at the American Antiquarian Society are diverse and expansive, incorporating over 400,000 historic American objects subdivided into 135 collection areas. The department cares for prints, broadsides, maps, ephemera, sheet music, drawings and photographs. It also includes other material such as historic furniture, ceramics and former “cabinet” objects including a lock of George Washington’s hair and tea from the Boston Tea Party.
The collection is arranged by format, with all prints together, all maps together, etc. Within these format clusters, material can be arranged by a number of strategies, including call number, date, size, or geographic region.
Accessing graphic arts collection materials though records in the general catalog is possible for much of the collection.
The collection descriptions below provide an overview of the Society's holdings, specifics on access, and additional resources when available.
Contact
For information on obtaining digital images please review the step-by-step guide. For questions, please contact our Readers' Services department or the vice president for collections and Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts, Lauren Hewes,
