The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is one of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts and is Yale's principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books.

A team of 140-plus talented staff members make the Beinecke Library a vibrant center for discovery, creativity, and knowledge. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of the architecture firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the Beinecke Library building at 121 Wall Street in New Haven opened in October 1963.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library holds one of the largest and most dynamic collections of rare books and manuscripts in the world. Its holdings draw hundreds of scholars, artists, and critics from around the world to the reading room each year.

Public visitors are welcome in the Beinecke Library exhibition hall. Regular hours are:

The Beinecke Library has digitized more than a million images of collections material. We are very excited to announce that Yale University Library has launched a new digital collections platform for improved user experience.

This page gives an overview of each tool and provides advice on when to use it. Beinecke curators, archivists, and librarians are also available to provide assistance in person or remotely. To request a research consultation or to pose a query, please email [email protected].

This searchable database offers thousands of partial and fully digitized items from a wide range of materials from the Beinecke’s collections: photographs, manuscripts, correspondence, artwork, objects, illustrations, and selected pages from printed works.

As part of its core mission, Beinecke Library offers fellowships to support research in a wide range of fields, from literary and cultural studies to the history of science, music, theater, and art; the history of the book, of photography, graphic design, and architecture; as well as social, intellectual, and political history.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library contains the principal rare books and literary manuscripts of Yale University and serves as a center for research by students, faculty, and other scholars, whether affiliated with Yale or not.

The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library is one of the world's largest libraries devoted entirely to rare books and manuscripts and is Yale's principal repository for literary archives, early manuscripts, and rare books. The Beinecke Library's robust collections are used to create new scholarship by researchers from around the world.