Lilly Library (Bloomington, Indiana)

 library, 1960_construction

The Lilly Library is one of the largest rare book and manuscript libraries in the United States. At the time of its dedication on October 3, 1960, the Lilly Library's holdings, numbering more than 75,000 books and 1,500,000 manuscripts, represented the combined resources of the University Library's Department of Special Collections and the private library of J. K. Lilly, Jr., given to the University in 1956 and 1957.

The Library now holds approximately 400,000 rare books, 6.5 million manuscripts, and 100,000 pieces of sheet music. The Library's holdings are particularly strong in British and American history and literature, Latin Americana, medicine and science, food and drink, children's literature, fine printing and binding, and popular music. Notable items in the library's collections include the New Testament of the Gutenberg Bible, the four Shakespeare folios, Audubon's Birds of America, George Washington's letter accepting the presidency of the United States, Abraham Lincoln's desk from his law office, and the manuscripts of Robert Burns's "Auld Lang Syne" and J. M. Synge's The Playboy of the Western World. The library also owns the papers of Hollywood directors Orson Welles and John Ford, the poets Sylvia Plath and Ezra Pound, and authors Edith Wharton and Nadine Gordimer. Special permission is not required to use the collections, and the library has several exhibition galleries which are open to the public.