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Research Guides@Tufts

Tisch Library Special Collections

About the Collection

The Nineteenth Century was a golden age of pamphleteering in America. The confluence of several trends - a growing population, rising literacy, cheap mass printing, and new channels of distribution - spurred an unprecedented outburst of publication. A rapidly changing society provided ample grist for the polemical mill: industrialization, immigration, the Protestant Revival, slavery, the rights of women, the welfare of children, railroads, banking, temperance, secession, and civil war.

The Tisch Library Pamphlets Collection contains over 6000 items, mainly from the 19th Century, although there are a small number of titles older or more recent. The collection is not cataloged title-by-title. It is recommended that readers scan the Excel file of short titles referenced under "Access to the Collection" (below) and consult the Coordinator of Special Collections to arrange for further study.

Access to the Collection

     The Pamphlets Collection is not cataloged title-by-title. There is an Excel file of short titles with brief subject terms - click Online Access in this record, but ignore the limited scope of the record, which reflects only a very small part of the entire pamphlets collections. 

    To call up pamphlets to the reading room, use the appropriate link with the catalog record ("Request to view..."). This will open tascr.tufts.edu, where a request may be completed and visit to the reading room scheduled. Add the pamphlet numbers required  (e.g. 007:21, 111:06) under "Special Requests / Questions"

     Please contact Christopher Barbour, Curator of Rare Books, for questions or more information. Email