The Special Collections team is happy to continue – and EXPAND – open hours on one or two Saturdays per month in 2026! We will not be open on a Saturday during December 2025. We will be open on both January 3rd and January 24th, from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. Researchers are welcome to drop in […]
We are pleased to announce the latest round of rare shoe titles to be digitized and added our Internet Archive webpage! For the past two years, the Special Collections Department has been working with the Boston Public Library and the Internet Archive hub there to digitize the rarest shoe titles in our collections, making them […]
UPDATE: Issues resolved! Please let us know if you are experiencing any issues while using the Senter Digital Archive. Our vendor updated the Senter Digital Archive website on September 3, 2025, which temporarily caused issues with display, access, and overall functionality. We believe all issues have been resolved; please alert us to any problems while […]
As a quick recap from the last post, we are discussing preservation measures to counter issues in our home environment, including: We covered the first two bullet points in previous posts; in this post we are discussing pests and mold – which are not so cute in practice as the fellow in the cover image! Various […]
As a quick recap from the last post, we are discussing preservation measures to counter issues in our home environment, including: We covered the first bullet point in the last post, and today we are continuing on to pollution, dust, and clutter. Yep, we are talking about good, old fashioned housekeeping. Pollution can have surprising […]
Now that we’ve defined cultural heritage and preservation, and how these concepts apply to your own collections, it’s time to learn about deterioration and how we can slow it down. First, we need to know what we’re up against! In our home environment, sources of deterioration include: We’ll do a post on each bullet point, […]
In this series, we are going to cover the basics of cultural heritage preservation at home, or that is, taking care of your family papers, collections, and heirlooms, so they last as long as possible. We’ll begin by defining a few terms that will be helpful for you to know. What is cultural heritage? Wikipedia […]
Preservation Week is an annual event during the week of May Day that celebrates the care of collections and emergency preparedness for cultural heritage. While 2025 Preservation Week has passed (it was April 27-May 3), HPL Special Collections is always thinking about the preservation and protection of our collections. Since Preservation Week last year, we have […]
The Special Collections team is happy to announce that we will have limited open hours on one Saturday per month! Keep an eye on the Special Collections Homepage for the next schedule Saturday Hours (noted in the right-hand side bar). Please join us and get a little research done on the weekend! More Special Collections […]
Happy Holidays from Special Collections! The library has collected vintage greeting cards for the past few decades, which the Special Collections Department has arranged and preserved into the HPL Greeting Card Collection. During the holiday season, and for many other holidays throughout the year, we love to share our favorites from this collection. From kittens, […]