The Special Collections of the Concord Free Public Library include material relating to William Ellery Channing (the poet), Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, and Franklin Benjamin Sanborn.  The Library owns a number of Channing letters and manuscripts (among the manuscripts, his "Leviticus" and "Major Leviticus," Chapter 14 of Thoreau, the Poet-Naturalist , and two lectures), letters and notes by Elizabeth Peabody, and a large body of Sanborn letters and papers (including many letters written to W.T. Harris).  The Special Collections are rich in newspaper clippings, periodical articles, reprints, and research papers.  The collection of Sanborn Concord Pamphlets is notably strong, covering material both by and about Sanborn, and includes a number of pieces reflecting his involvement in social work (for example, prison reform and the care of the insane).  The Library also owns photographs of Channing, Peabody, and Sanborn.  Concord's manuscript and pamphlet collections are continually expanding through gift and purchase. 

The Library's Concord Author Collection includes separate Channing, Fuller, Peabody and Sanborn collections, containing first and later editions of writings by these authors, items which they edited, translated, or to which they contributed pieces, and biographical, bibliographical, and critical material about them. Volumes relating to the authors in the Concord Authors Collection may be searched through the database of the Minuteman Library Network

In addition, the Library owns more than four hundred volumes (the remainder of a much larger gift) presented in 1878 by Elizabeth Peabody.  Many of these books bear bookplates, inscriptions, or other indications of having once been part of Miss Peabody's circulating library and bookstore at 13 West Street in Boston.

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