The Special Collections & Archives Department at Haverhill Public Library maintains a wide variety of local history and genealogical resources, in both physical and digital forms. Highlights of the collections include:
Special Collections has different open hours than the rest of the library, but our online resources are always available! Click on the images below for Special Collections news and to learn more about our collections.
Unable to come in? We accept obituary and research requests online:
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We are happy to announce the addition of Bradford College photographs to the Senter Digital Archive! As part of an ongoing project to make our archival collections discoverable, we have been working on our largest one, the Bradford College Collection. The materials in this collection were transferred to the Haverhill Public Library following the closure […]
Over the past year, the Special Collections Department has been working to get even more of our digitized images online in the Senter Digital Archive. We are happy to announce that we are now able to continuing adding images at a decent pace! In the latest batch of images, there are many images of the […]
Since its inception in 1875, the Haverhill Public Library has maintained a collection of books relating to local history, genealogy, and native poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Shortly after the library’s inception 1873, the local Whittier Club began an official Whittier Collection at the Library around 1887. In 1916, the Pecker Collection, dedicated to New England, state, and town histories, was started and was later expanded in 1932 to include family histories and genealogical material. In 1923, the Haverhill Collection was formally established to preserve existing library material and to collect additional material for future generations. In 1969, with the construction of a new library building, plans called for two rooms to house the then 20,700 volumes that made up the Whittier, Local History, and Genealogy collections. In 1997, with the renovation of the library, Special Collections was moved to the Third Floor where it presently resides.