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Monday, Thursday, and Friday: 9 a.m.–5 p.m.
Tuesday and Wednesday: 9 a.m.–7 p.m.
Closed weekends, major holidays, and other planned closures.
This collection contains the official, semi-official and personal papers of six generations of the Egerton family of Great Britain. The papers span 1150-1803 and include approximately 13,000 pieces with particular strengths related to domestic management, religion, politics, literature, law and diplomacy from the late 16th through 18th centuries. The geographic scope of the collection includes all of the British Isles, the British Atlantic and early colonial America, and foreign relations with Western Europe.
This acquisition accompanied the purchase of the centuries-old Bridgewater family library and the Larpent Plays. To learn more about the Bridgewater family library, and the purchase of the Ellesmere collection, see: Sherburn, G. (1931). Huntington Library Collections. "The Huntington Library Bulletin," (1), 33-106, available online via JSTOR.
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N.B. When the collection was purchased in 1917, the Egerton family chose to retain some 1,600 manuscripts of personal or literary interest or value. Still, facsimiles of these items were subsequently provided to The Huntington and integrated into the original collection.
The collection includes 27 medieval and renaissance codices that can be found in the library catalog, which includes links to digital images, where available.
Additional information about medieval manuscripts, including information related to the Ellesmere manuscripts, can be found in volume one of “Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in The Huntington Library.” The Guide is available online through the HathiTrust Digital Library.
N.B. These items are restricted and require prior curatorial approval for use on-site. Contact the library for additional information.