Manuscript Society

Eric Weiner traced Benjamin Franklin’s travels from Boston to London, Philadelphia to Paris and back again. Franklin loved Paris, and it loved him back. See what Weiner discovered — including, in Franklin’s sunset years, a connection with Marie Antoinette. nytimes.com/2026/05/13/tra…

Breaking news! America declares independence from Great Britain. In the summer of 1776, the news spread as fast as printers and riders could carry it. Eight original printings at the Boston Public Library show how the declaration was received. wcvb.com/article/declar…

Mel Brooks is about to become a 100-year-old man. And he’s making a gift: he’s donating his archive to the National Comedy Center in Jamestown, New York. His collection joins that of his longtime comedy partner Carl Reiner. Hold for laughter. avclub.com/mel-brooks-don…

The Vassar College Archives and Special Collections Library has expanded its holdings with the Mary C. Schlosser Collection of Harriet Beecher Stowe and Uncle Tom’s Cabin. A highlight: issues of the newspaper The Nation where the novel first appeared. finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-new…

Marilyn Monroe’s centenary is just around the corner — time for auctions featuring her letters, art, and memorabilia. See some of the highlights. smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mar…

Earlier this month, an archivist at Morley College London opened a box to do some spring cleaning. What she found made her look twice. She was right: it was an unknown composition handwritten by a young Ralph Vaughan Williams. thetimes.com/culture/music/…

“I’m not a rare book collector; I’m not a first-editions collector. I am a collector of books that influenced me,” says author Amor Towles. “A signature means that it was in the hand of the author. That’s an incredible concept.” What’s on his shelf. nytimes.com/2026/05/12/boo…

In 1962 Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” sparked public demands for environmental action. See her handwritten drafts for the groundbreaking book — along with unpublished letters, photographs, and notebooks — May 18-October 4 at Yale’s Beinecke Library. finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-new…

You say you want a revolution? See this year’s Firsts London book fair. Beyond the American anniversary, the revolution theme echoes in the idea of book fairs as “experience culture” — and a new generation of buyers and sellers connecting first online. dnyuz.com/2026/05/12/rev…

A receipt from a book sale — in 1738. Discussions of 18th-century tax negotiations. (No taxation without …) Records of early electricity experiments. (Hello, lightning rod.) All once owned by Benjamin Franklin. All on display at the library he founded. smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bef…

Schlock value: As America’s 250th anniversary approaches, it’s important to look back at history — like how the nation celebrated its 200th birthday. That’s why Yale has a Bicentennial Schlock collection. Toilet paper. Candy dispensers. Shirt hangers … nytimes.com/interactive/20…

Ahead of America’s big 250, the Morgan Library & Museum is showing a rare Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence. Also on show: a letter from Martha Washington to her sister, reporting on troop movements through Philadelphia toward New York. finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-new…

Historians had seen a few scattered references to Nubian King Qashqash. But was he a man or a myth? A shred of paper found in northern Sudan answer revealed the truth. How? Think of it as a new spin on an old adage: I issue edicts; therefore, I am. popularmechanics.com/science/archae…

Of the first official copies of the US Constitution, 14 are known to survive. Twelve are in institutions. The other two? Billionaire Ken Griffin now own them both. And in the year of America’s 250th anniversary, he has plans for them. nytimes.com/2026/05/04/art…

More than 160 manuscripts preserve Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum. Now another copy has surfaced. And this copy contains one of the earliest versions of Cædmon’s Hymn, the oldest known poem in English. How scholars sleuthed it out. theconversation.com/we-found-a-los…

In the Middle Ages, monks bound pages of a 6th-c manuscript in other texts. In the 18th c, a monk spotted bits of Codex H in libraries across Europe. But reading them was another thing. Now multispectral imaging has recovered 42 lost pages. What they show. news.artnet.com/art-world/medi…

Shades of “The Scarlet Pimpernel!” A handwritten letter from a British spy during the French Revolution makes an appearance at Firsts London, May 14-17 in Chelsea. See what else is on offer. finebooksmagazine.com/news/firsts-lo…

In the summer of 1776, the US Declaration of Independence wasn’t a revered document. It was news. For the first time, the Boston Public Library’s eight printings of the Dec will be on view together. See what’s behind the rare show. whdh.com/news/original-…

Most 18th and 19th c. women left a paper trail only in records of birth, marriage, and death. Officially. Unofficially, they left letters, journals, scrapbooks, cookbooks, artworks… What do they reveal? An exhibition at Chawton House offers a glimpse. finebooksmagazine.com/fine-books-new…

When archaeologists find papyri in Roman-era mummies, the texts are often magical or ritualistic. But In the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchus, something else turned up: a papyrus fragment from Homer’s “Iliad.” A little reading matter for the afterlife? smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/arc…