Current Research

We are always eager to help spread the word about new scholarship from our collections and we frequently post notices about books, articles, and conference presentations that have benefited from research in our reading room or using our online resources.

Students, scholars, and fellows are invited and encouraged to let us know about new work drawn from the Beinecke Library’s collections. Please send a citation, summary, and information about Beinecke collections consulted by following this link: New Scholarship from Beinecke: Submissions.

New Scholarship

Introducing the Constellations Project: Early Black Lives at Yale, 1830-1940
April 16, 2024
The Constellations Project: Early Black Lives at Yale, 1830-1940 is a Beinecke effort dedicated to researching, understanding, and uplifting the stories of early Black pathfinders at the university.
Beinecke exhibit reflects on Samuel F. B. Morse’s legacy, Yale and slavery (Yale Daily News)
March 8, 2024
The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library held a drop-in session with archival materials on key documents included in the book “Yale and Slavery: A History” and specific items related to Samuel F. B. Morse this week.
Exhibit highlights slavery and resistance in Yale and New Haven (WSHU Public Radio)
February 19, 2024
Shining Light on Truth: New Haven, Yale, and Slavery opened its doors to the public late last week, showcasing what Michael Morand and Charles Warner, Jr. have curated through accessing mountains of archival material on Black history in New Haven and throughout Yale University. The exhibit complements a new book published the same day, Yale and Slavery: A History ...
Langston Hughes's "China" Why the previously unpublished poem is a revelation
January 31, 2024
During the summer of 2019, I was wading through the Langston Hughes papers in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale for a book I am writing on Afro-Asian encounters in the twentieth century.
Yale Library Book Talk series announces lineup for spring 2024
January 8, 2024
Throughout the academic calendar, the Yale Library Book Talk series hosts acclaimed authors to discuss newly released books of fiction or nonfiction. The three topics this spring season include hacking in the digital age (and its notorious perpetrators), the history of anarchy in America and how it shapes public life today, and the work of six creative thinkers inspired by loneliness.
Reflections from the Beinecke Library by Méabh Ní Choileáin, Graduate Research Fellow
September 29, 2023

The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University needs to be seen, whether in person or in picture, for its beauty and marvel to be believed...
Teasing apart the meaning of Shakespeare’s First Folio
September 27, 2023
A new exhibit at Sterling Memorial Library explores the changing perceptions — in prestige and value — of the first printed collection of Shakespeare’s plays.
How Janet Malcolm Created Her Own Personal Archive (LitHub)
January 18, 2023
It’s hardly coincidental that Malcolm was organizing her own archive around the same time that she began to explore writing about her life. In 2013, she sent her first shipment—59 boxes of assorted detritus—up to New Haven, where they would live at Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. To say that Malcolm organized her papers would be a stretch. In some cases, she simply emptied the contents of her filing cabinets into cardboard boxes. But elsewhere, she annotated letters and folders, leaving easter eggs and reminders for any future researcher that she was thinking carefully about what to include in her archive and, more importantly, what to leave out.
Digital project supports ‘bibliographic turn’ in Black literary studies
August 11, 2022
Digital project supports ‘bibliographic turn’ in Black literary studies By Allison Bensinger August 11, 2022 Share this with Facebook Share this with Twitter Share this with LinkedIn Share this with Email Print this A selection of books by Black authors (Photo by Tubyez Cropper) Yale’s Jacqueline Goldsby and Meredith McGill of Rutgers University recently received a $1.7 million grant from The Mellon Foundation to support the development of The Black Bibliography Project (BBP), an initiative that aims to revive and transform descriptive bibliography for African American and Black Diaspora literary studies.
Hidden Gems
April 18, 2022

Hidden Gems Welcome to Hidden Gems , a series of short articles which highlight items in the Beinecke Library’s collection of rare books and manuscripts and...