Brown University, John Carter Brown Library

Brown University, John Carter Brown Library is a major research library at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, devoted to the history of the Americas before 1825. Founded in 1846 from the collection of John Carter Brown and housed in a dedicated building on Brown’s campus since 1904, it preserves rare books, manuscripts, maps, prints, and other primary sources documenting the European, Indigenous, and African histories of the Western Hemisphere. Its collecting scope spans North America, South America, the Caribbean, and the Atlantic world, giving scholars a concentrated resource for studying colonization, trade, religion, science, slavery, revolution, and cultural exchange across the early Americas. The library’s work centers on advanced research, teaching, exhibitions, publications, and public engagement. It supports an international community of scholars through a substantial fellowship program that includes short-term and long-term awards for researchers using its collections. It also offers digital resources and curated exhibitions that extend access beyond Providence, and it hosts lectures, conferences, and educational programs that connect Brown students, faculty, visiting researchers, and the broader public with rare historical materials. As a specialized library within a university setting, the John Carter Brown Library serves both as a steward of globally significant collections and as an active center for scholarship on the early American world. Its identity is defined by deep subject specialization, sustained support for humanities research, and a geographic focus that reaches across the entire Americas rather than a single nation or region.