History
The American Antiquarian Society's library contains 20 miles of shelves that hold over three million items including: books, pamphlets, broadsides, newspapers, periodicals, sheet music, and graphic materials. The collection contains two out of three of the total books known to have been printed in what is now the United States from the establishment of the first press in 1640 to 1820.
Specialties
The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) library houses the largest and most accessible collection of printed materials from first contact through 1876 in what is now the United States, the West Indies and parts of Canada.