American Antiquarian Society

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Contact Information
E-mail: [mailto:Library@americanantiquarian.org Library@americanantiquarian.org]

Address:


 * 185 Salisbury Street Worcester, Massachusetts 01609-1634

Telephone: 508-755-5221 Fax:  508-753-3311

Hours and holidays: Monday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.;Tuesday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.;Wednesday: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m. Thursday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.; Friday: 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Closed on legal holidays.

Directions, maps, and public transportation: Click here.

Internet sites and databases:


 * American Antiquarian Society (Internet site) including library collections, programs, and events.
 * Search the Catalog. AAS Online Catalog by Keyword, Exact, Subject, and Name searches.
 * Clarence newspaper holdings of the AAS.
 * GIGI AAS digital image archives.

Collection Description
A national research library of American history, literature, and culture through 1876. The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) library houses the largest and most accessible collection of printed materials from first contact through 1876 in what is now the United States, the West Indies and parts of Canada. This repository is best known for its premier newspaper collection, over 18,000 bound volumes 1704-1820 in the United States alone. About 75 percent of all printed American documents for the first 200 years are found here. Subject categories include American history, literature and bibliography, newspapers, periodicals and imprints to 1820, biography, genealogy, local history, almanacs, history, directories, federal, state and municipal documents including New England town reports, schools, patriotic publications, literature of the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the westward movement, negro literature, slavery, Civil War and Reconstruction, Native Americans, women, canals, railroads, early maps, photos, portraits, and manuscripts.

Tips

 * Using the Library who may use it, planning your visit, arriving and exiting, what is and is not allowed in the reading room, and policies.

Guides

 * AAS collection descriptions alphabetical by topic.

Alternate Repositories
If you cannot visit or find a source at the , a similar source may be available at one of the following.

Overlapping Collections


 * National Archives Northeast Region (Boston) (that is Waltham), federal censuses, Ancestry.com, military, pensions, bounty land, photos, passengers arrival indexes, naturalizations, Native Americans, African Americans, workshops.
 * National Archives Northeast Region (New York City), census, naturalization, passenger arrivals, Canadian border crossings, customs, draft, military service, military pension and bounty land, Chinese Exclusion Act cases, Freedmen's Bureau, Indians, and vital records. Moving soon. 

Similar Collections


 * New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, national in scope. Over 100 million name database, of vital records, genealogies, journals, over 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, and over 20 million manuscripts with emphasis on New England since the 1600s.
 * New York Public Library Genealogy Division has an outstanding collection of American history at national, state and local levels; international genealogy and heraldry in Roman alphabets; Dorot Jewish collection; photos; New York censuses, directories, and vital records.
 * Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne, Indiana, features a premier genealogical periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, American Indians, African Americans, and Canadians.

Neighboring Collections


 * Worcester Public Library, has Ancestry.com, HeritageQuest, American Ancestors, Digital Treasures, census, city directories, maps, newspapers, you can order FamilySearch's microfilms, passenger and immigration lists, Worcester Biography Clipping Files, and birth-death-marriage indexes 1897-.
 * Worcester County Courthouse, maintains criminal and probation records.
 * Worcester Probate and Family Court, wills, guardianship, divorce, adoptions, name changes.
 * Worcester County Registry of Deeds, preserves land records.
 * Boston Athenaeum, a member library with newspapers, maps, photos, Civil War letters, diaries.
 * Mayflower Society Library, family and local histories, censuses, published town records, CDs.
 * Massachusetts State Library, holds government documents, town, county and state histories.
 * Massachusetts Archives, vital records, passenger lists, census, military, Maine, Plymouth Colony, court, natuaralizations, divorces, probate, name changes, and state institutions.
 * Massachusetts Historical Society, has personal papers of families who lived in Massachusetts.
 * Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics, keeps births, marriages, and deaths.
 * Harvard University Libraries, history, Afro-American studies, and women's history libraries.
 * Congregational Library, church and mission records, histories, sermons, 25,000 obituaries.
 * Berkshire Athenaeum, Cooke Collection church and cemetery records, newspaper notices, ministers' records, BMDs from New England and New York, genealogy databases.
 * Massachusetts Society of Genealogists, Ashland, is an educational organization.
 * Peabody Essex Museum Library, Salem, collects published MA vital records to 1850, city directories, Essex County probate records 1638-1914, court records, and ship logbooks.
 * Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, local archives, French Canadian, Irish, African American.
 * Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, has steamship photos, logbooks, and crew lists.