University Archives & Special Collections

The Library’s Special Collections hold a variety of rare, collectible, unusual, and fragile books. It includes medieval manuscripts, artists books, limited edition classics, sheet music, Bibles, and more. The Denisoniana collection contains books written about and published by Denison University, its faculty, and its alumni.

Just a few of our special collections:

• The Artist's Books Collection – The artists’ books collection features books that are visually intriguing and are rare and unique items. Some subjects represented include art, identity, women’s studies, and environmental studies.
• The Civil War Collection – This collection includes histories of the war, rosters of Ohio soldiers who served, memoirs, and photographic histories of the war.  It also covers related subjects such as reconstruction, slavery, and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln.
• The William Howard Doane Collection – This collection contains alum William Howard Doane’s personal book donations, including Baptist hymnals, temperance hymns, secular compositions, and more.
• The Otto F. Ege Collection – A collection of original medieval manuscript leaves relating to the work of Otto F. Ege and additional collected and purchased medieval manuscripts and leaves. 
• The Gilbert Collection – The Gilbert Collection contains the personal science library of the famous geologist, Grove Karl Gilbert, given to Denison to replace books lost in the 1906 Barney fire.
• The Edgar J. Goodspeed Collection – This collection includes numerous special editions of the Bible in many languages and other religious texts, donated by Edgar J. Goodspeed, class of 1890 and renown scholar.
• The Percy Wiltsee Collection –  A collection of classic works from the Limited Editions Club, donated by Percy Wiltsee, alum, Trustee, and benefactor of Denison University.
• The Denisoniana Collection –  A collection of books by Denison authors, relating to the history of Denison, or published by Denison.