A-Z Featured collections
We have many interesting collections with strengths in a number of different areas, including music, stained glass, art, and theology.
Find out how our featured collections came to be held here, who they were donated by and how you can access them, and discover how they can support your teaching and research.
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Attlee Collection
Books related to India and Pakistan donated in the early 1960s by Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of post-Second World War Britain.
Raymond Burton Yorkshire collection
This collection has more than 1800 items relevant to Yorkshire and provides valuable insight into the social history of the county.
Cooper Abbs collection
An 18th century family library, giving insight into the social history of a well to do North Eastern family.
Chapbooks collection
The University collection has nearly 100 chapbooks, many of which were published by James Kendrew on Colliergate in York.
Dyson collection
Just over 800 titles of 17th to 19th century English literature, with good coverage of British poetry. There are many first editions, and several of the books are beautifully bound.
Eliot collection
The collection contains 20th century English literature, with many first editions. Well represented authors are WB Yeats, Robert Graves, DH Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, Seamus Heaney, Christopher Hill, and Paul Muldoon.
Geoffrey Elton collection
An impressive library of working source material and secondary literature, of interest to students of early modern and British political history.
Feinstein collection
The collection covers economics and economic history, with most items dating from 1900-1950. Notable highlights include a number of first editions including JM Keynes.
Garden History Society collection
A collection of material on the history of landscape, garden design, horticulture and conservation assembled and owned by the Gardens Trust (formerly the Garden History Society).
General Pamphlet collection
A collection of bound pamphlets covering a variety of political and historical subjects from some of the twentieth century’s most influential figures.
Gibson collection
Over 100 books on the art and craft of stained glass, including examples of European stained glass windows and church architecture.
Glass Plate Negatives collection
A collection of glass plate negatives and lantern slides of architecture and antiquities.
Halifax Parish collection
The collection is the parish library for Halifax Church and contains around 240 titles, predominantly works of the Church fathers such as St Augustine and St Ambrose.
Heath collection
The collection is illustrative of British engraving from the 17th to the 19th centuries and includes a first edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson.
Barbara Hutton collection
This collection comprises 117 items and includes books and pamphlets on architecture in Britain.
Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies collection
This collection comprises of material on architecture, city planning, historic buildings, building conservation and other related subjects.
Kenneth Keele collection
A collection of books about Leonardo da Vinci with an emphasis on his scientific and anatomical studies.
Kildwick Parish Library collection
A collection of 62 books dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries including Protestant ecclesiastical works.
Leftwich collection
This collection focuses on sociology, South African politics (including Apartheid), political development, African history and economic development.
Leighton House Museum collection
This fascinating collection, from London’s prestigious Leighton House Museum, comprises a variety of beautifully engraved eighteenth and nineteenth century prints.
Wilfrid Mellers collection
Around 1600 items relating to music, comprising books, scores and CDs, some by Mellers himself.
Milner-White collection
The collection contains about 740 volumes, mainly first editions of English detective fiction published in the first half of the 20th century. All the well known authors of the 'Golden Age of Crime' are represented.
Milnes Walker collection
200 early medical books, most associated with Wakefield in Yorkshire, covering a period of almost 450 years from 1538 to 1970.
Mirfield collection
A collection of over 2000 books, most printed before 1800. Predominantly theological but also holds interesting works on other subjects, including books from the abolitionist William Wilberforce.
Newton and Newbold collections
These two collections are key to the University's strength in stained glass, and include books (some very rare) and slides.
Peggy Januriek collection
The collection is mainly focused on children's literature and is geared towards PGCE English studies, students of language and international students seeking to improve their English.
Petyt collection
A unique library collected in the 17th century by Yorkshire brothers, William and Silvester Petyt. The collection contains material written during the English Civil War and Commonwealth period.
Pickford collection
Rich in material relating to medieval and modern French literature, Arthurian romance, and the development of French and English languages.
Poetry Society collection
Around 11,000 volumes of both literary and critical works, especially poetry, published between 1709-2006.
Retreat collection
This intact specialist library on insanity has books dating from the 17th to the early 20th century, particularly relating to psychiatry and mental illness.
Riddy collection
This collection comprises of 1550 titles, mostly focused around politics and government in British India in both the 18th and 19th centuries.
Joseph Rowntree Foundation collection
The collection represents the output of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's social research funding which has been a key part of its work since the 1960s.
Sessions Book Trust collection
Local history, Quakerism and the history of the book trade are the main strengths of this collection.
Slaithwaite Parish collection
This parish library from Slaithwaite has around 250 books mainly of 17th and 18th century theology, consisting of commentaries and expositions of scripture in Latin and English. There are also some manuscripts of local interest.
George Smith collection
The collection focuses on 18th and 19th century painting and engraving, and includes books, prints, banknotes, and stamps.
Society of Friends collection
A collection of over 600 books from Friends Meeting Houses around the country containing books on Quakerism.
Trade Card collection
The Trade Card collection forms part of the Raymond Burton Yorkshire collection.
Robert Wilberforce collection
This collection was originally owned by the abolitionist William Wilberforce and his sons Robert and Samuel.
Wormald collection
This collection covers the fields of stained glass, palaeography, manuscript illumination and liturgical history.
York Art Gallery collection
This collection of over 3500 items has strengths in painting, sculpture and graphic arts, with British painting well represented.
York Medical Society collection
The collection of 2000 items from the York dispensatory and York county hospital medical library, includes notable books from the sixteenth century onwards.
York County Hospital Medical Library collection
This collection includes over 500 titles that the York County Hospital used to support their purpose of promoting and diffusing medical knowledge.