"Yale Library Brings 18th-Century England To Town"

From the Hartford Courant:

The Lewis Walpole Library is the town’s [Farmington, CT) piece of Yale.

The library, at 154 Main St., is dedicated to the study of 18^th-century British art and literature. It contains manuscripts, prints, drawings, paintings and decorative arts.

The Georgian-style library was left to Yale University by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis and Annie Burr Lewis. It was originally built in 1784 for Revolutionary War Gen. Solomon Cowles. After the Lewises acquired the building as their home, the couple needed to add space to hold their collection of books and artifacts.

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Containing approximately 30,000 prints and drawings, the Walpole has the largest collection of 18^th–century British graphic art outside of London’s British Museum. The collection includes at least two-thirds of the traceable volumes owned by Horace Walpole, the writer and son of England’s first prime minister. The library created an exhibit called “Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill” that has been displayed at the Yale Center for British Studies in New Haven and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Read the Complete Article

Direct to Lewis Walpole Library Web Site

Direct to Lewis Walpole Library Digital Image Collection

Direct to Recent Antiquarian Acquisitions Blog from The Lewis Walpole Library

Filed under: Libraries