Researching at the Armstrong Browning Library

The Armstrong Browning Library's 19th Century collections developed as an effort to gather materials which provide insight into the Brownings' lives in the 19th Century and provide social and historical context to their writings. The collections have notable strengths in 19th-century writers, such as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Carlyle, Eliza Cook, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, R. H. Horne, Anna Brownell Jameson, Walter Savage Landor, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Bulwer and Robert Lytton, Harriet Martineau, the Meynells, Francis William Newman, John Henry Newman, Uvedale Price, Christina Rossetti, John Ruskin, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Thomas Westwood, and T. J. Wise. Additional genre strengths include women poets and theological pamphlets and tracts.

19th Century ...

• Women Poets (17th-20th Centuries) & 19th Century Women Poets ... provide context for Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetry.
• Minor English Poets ... is a collection, curated by an unknown collector, is mostly made up of less well-known 19th Century poets.
• Theological Pamphlets & Tracts
• Periodicals ...
  • More than 6,000 bound humanities-related periodical volumes published before 1901 that contain a wealth of information on the nineteenth century.
  • Over 20 subscriptions to current periodicals and newsletters pertaining to literature, the Victorian period, or rare books and manuscripts.

Brownings' Circle & Author Collections ...

• Matthew Arnold
• Thomas Carlyle
• Coleridge Family
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Michael Field
• Charles Kingsley
• George MacDonald
• Harriett Martineau
• W. Somerset Maugham
• John Henry Newman
• Purefoy FitzGerald
• Christina Rossetti

Children's Literature ...  although the ABL does not focus on or actively collect children's literature, a large number of books for or enjoyed by children have been identified.

Victorian Letters ... is a growing collection of more than 3,000 letters spanning the long 19th Century. The letters are browse-able in Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections. Included in the digital collection are: 

• Collector curated albums dedicated to John Kenyon and Elizabeth & Mabel Purefoy Fitzgerald, as well as many other albums. Preliminary inventories of albums may be available upon request.
• Scrapbook belonging to Fanny Kemble. A preliminary inventory may be available upon request.
• John Henry Newman & Francis William Newman Papers ... a preliminary inventory is available upon request.
• Aurelia Brooks Harlan's Collection of John Forester's Correspondence ... a preliminary inventory is available upon request.
• Aurelia Brooks Harlan's Collection of John Forester's Correspondence to Thomas Carlyle ... a preliminary inventory is available upon request.

Victorian Manuscripts ... is a growing collection of more than 200 manuscripts spanning the long 19th Century. They browse-able in Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections within the Victorian Letters digital collection. A preliminary inventory may be available upon request.

Victorian Photographs ... is a growing collection of photographs (mostly author's portraits) spanning the long 19th Century. A preliminary inventory may be available upon request.

• Julia Margaret Cameron Photographs ... this portion of the collection is browse-able in Baylor University Libraries Digital Collections.

Victorian Bookplates & Clipped Signatures ... a preliminary inventory may be available upon request.

Ralph Waldo Emerson Papers ... a preliminary inventory may be available upon request.

John Ruskin's Woodcuts ... a preliminary inventory may be available upon request.

Dotson Wedgwood Collection ... is comprised of more than 300 pieces of pottery collected by Sue Anthony Dotson. It is on display in the Armstrong Browning Library's Cox Reception Hall. More information about Wedgwood, Robert Browning, and the Dotsons is available on the ABL's website.