Rare & Special Books

The Rare Book Collection includes more than 30,000 rare, scarce and unique titles dating from 1493 to the present. Subject areas represented in the collections include 16th and 17th century history and literature, Long Island and New York history, classics in Latin, Irish literature, the Perishable Press Limited, Black Mountain poets, natural sciences, and book and printing history. The oldest book in the collection is known as the Nuremberg Chronicle, a pictorial history of the world published in 1493. It was compiled by Dr. Hartmann Schedel, illustrated and engraved by Michael Wohlgemuth, Wilhelm Pleydenwurff and Albrecht Dürer, and printed and published by Anton Koberger.

Books housed in Special Collections are included in SBU Libraries' discovery catalogSEARCH.
We suggest limiting the "Library" to "Special Collections" and the "Material Type" to "Book."

Long Island Collection: more than 2,000 volumes on the history, people, and places of Long Island. 

Baker-Pisano American Art History Research Collection
The Baker-Pisano American Art Research Collection is a special collection of rare, first edition, and autographed art books published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Ronald G. Pisano (1948-2000) authored several books on Long Island artists, and the definitive study of The Tile Club, which was the basis of a 1999 exhibition at The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages. For over thirty years, he worked on the catalog raisonné of William Merritt Chase, which was completed by D. Frederick Baker, with the assistance of Carolyn K. Lane, in four volumes published by Yale University Press (2006-2010). Cataloging records can be accessed by entering "Baker-Pisano" in SBU Libraries' discovery catalogSEARCH.

Douglas J. Crooks Collection: rare and scarce books on the history of Haiti dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Cataloging records can be accessed by entering "Julie Crooks" in SBU Libraries' discovery catalogSEARCH.

Chow! by Dolly Liu (1939). Jacqueline M. Newman Collection.

Dr. Jacqueline M. Newman Chinese Cookbook Collection
In 2002, Queens College professor and lifetime collector of Chinese cookbooks Jacqueline M. Newman donated her collection of more than 2,600 English-language Chinese cookbooks to Stony Brook University. The collection of its type in the world, today it includes: more than 5,000 Chinese cookbooks; books on Chinese food culture, medicine, and history; haute cuisine magazines; artifacts; and audio-visual materials. These materials provide a valuable record of the Chinese diaspora that has carried its rich cuisine to every corner of the globe. Dr. Newman's extensive annotated bibliography is available online, thereby making it accessible worldwide. The collection is a valuable record of the Chinese diaspora and provides researchers with the opportunity to conceptualize food history and its anthropologic, sociologic, cultural and historic values. Cataloging records can be accessed by entering "Jacqueline M. Newman" in SEARCH - the University Libraries' online catalog.Read and learn more...

AIDC 100 Collection: a special collection of books about automatic identification and data capture, including the development of bar codes, punched codes, RFID, and other wireless technologies. Cataloging records can be accessed by entering "AIDC 100" in SBU Libraries' discovery catalogSEARCH.

White Shroud (1986) signed by Allen Ginsberg in 1988. Daniel Thomas Moran Collection.

Book Arts and Literature
The history and techniques of book arts can be explored by consulting the archives of the renowned book artist Walter Hamady, founder of Perishable Press Limited, the sketches of Italian American illustrator Valenti Angelo, and the department’s extensive Literary Broadsides Collection, which contains original works by Conrad Aiken, Paul Blackburn, Charles Bukowski, Robert Bly, and Allen Ginsberg.

Daniel Thomas Moran Collection: 20th century, autographed books of literature and poetry donated by Dr. Moran. Cataloging records can be accessed by entering "Daniel Thomas Moran" in SBU Libraries' discovery catalogSEARCH.