Middlebury College Special Collections

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Middlebury College Special Collections

Special Collections serves as a research laboratory for students, faculty, administration/staff, alumni, the Middlebury community, and independent scholars

We welcome researchers to explore our collections of rare books, archives, manuscripts, photographs, audio and video recordings, and other rare and unique materials that tell the story of our collective past. Our major collections are broad in scope and include the Julian W. Abernethy Collection of American Literature, the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, and the Middlebury College Archives.

06/19/2026

Happy 60th anniversary to the Chinese School! The summer session begins today!
Middlebury Language Schools
Enjoy these photos from the long history of the program, and join in the celebrations as the summer continues!
📸 Photo 1: 1966
Photo 2: 1986
Photo 3: 1991
Photo 4: 1987
Photo 5: undated
Photo 6: undated
Photo 7: 2010’s
Photo 8: 2014
Photo 9: undated
Photo 10: 2010’s

06/18/2026

Today we share a close look at an egg featured in ON EGGS-HIBIT …on display now in the Davis Family Library Atrium! This is Howard Nemerov’s egg! There are several charms affixed to the egg, each relevant to Nemerov’s life: the St Louis arch (his hometown), a football (played in high school), an airplane (pilot during WWII), and an acorn with the Star of David drawn on its body (Nemerov was Jewish and wrote The Oak in the Acorn (1987) based on Marcel Proust’s lectures).

06/17/2026

For today’s game between Portugal and th Democratic Republic of Congo, we have items from our mini and pamphlet collections.
🇵🇹 “Diario ecclesiastico para o reino de Portugal principalmente para a cidade de Lisboa” (1808, 1829) from our mini collection (it also boasts an embroidered binding! 😍)
🇨🇩“King Leopold’s Soliloquy” a political satire by Mark Twain (1905) from our Abernethy pamphlet collection
…
⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

06/16/2026

Defending champions Argentina go head to head with Algeria today in Kansas City. See if you can identify the players’ hometowns in this mid 19th-century travel diary and this undated French description of Algeria. 🇦🇷🇩🇿
Manuscript diary recorded by Alonzo F. Bixby detailing his seven-week voyage from Boston to Buenos Aires aboard the Warren White, and his ensuing work and travels during six weeks in and around Buenos Aires and Montevideo, where he worked under contract to establish a mill site on the Pando River.
“L'Algérie” published in Paris.
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⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

06/15/2026

France plays tomorrow, but it connects the two teams who face off in Seattle today: Belgium and Egypt (not geographically, but through our collections!). Denon’s 1816 Antiquities of Egypt and a 1912 manuscript recounting travels in France and Belgium.
🇪🇬🇧🇪
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⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

06/14/2026

…The Dutch, you say? They play Japan today, and we’ve chosen two works from those countries that came to our collection thanks to Midd alumni! Dutch cartographer Williem Blaeu’s 1649 “Le Theatre du Monde” was donated by Lee Buchheit, class of 1972, and Katsushika Hokusai’s 1878 woodcut volumes were purchased with funds provided by Jeri Bapasola, MA French 1978!
🇳🇱🇯🇵
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⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

06/13/2026

The two items from our collections for today’s teams represent the respective countries from an outsider perspective. The 1648 “Historia Naturalis Brasiliae,” a scientific work on the flora and fauna of Brazil, was compiled by Dutch travelers and artists while the 1891 photos taken of Morocco with a No. 1 Kodak Camera were taken by English-speaking travelers. 🇧🇷🇲🇦
…
⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

06/12/2026

For today’s match, one cookbook unites two countries: “Favorite Recipes from the United Nations: 170 Authentic Dishes.” Celebrate by trying out a recipe from Paraguay and the U.S. No matter which team comes out on top, you win with these recipes! 🇵🇾🇺🇲
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⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

06/11/2026

Today after Mexico challenges South Africa in the first round of World Cup games, South Korea takes on Czechia in Guadalajara!
🇰🇷 Percival Lowell’s 1886 “Chosön; The Land of the Morning Calm: A Sketch of Korea” from the Abernethy Collection, and for Czechia, folk songs from the Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection! 🇨🇿
…
⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

06/10/2026

The 2026 World Cup begins tomorrow!
The first teams to face off are Mexico and South Africa, playing in Mexico City. 🏟️
Can't make the game? Enjoy “The Republic of Mexico in 1876 : A political and ethnographical division of the population, character, habits, costumes and vocations of its inhabitants” by Mexican historian Antonio García Cubas, and a stereograph of the iconic Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa, 1897-1907. 🇲🇽🇿🇦
…
⚽️ For this special summer series in honor of the 2026 World Cup, we’re featuring an item from our collection related to the countries competing. Let us know who you think will win in the comments.

Address

110 Storrs Avenue
Middlebury, VT
05753

Telephone

+18024432387

Website

http://go.middlebury.edu/special/

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