Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

38°02′10″N 78°30′21″W / 38.0361°N 78.5058°W / 38.0361; -78.5058

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia is a research library that specializes in American history and literature, history of Virginia and the southeastern United States, the history of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, and the history and arts of the book. The library is named after Albert and Shirley Small, who donated substantially to the construction of the library's current building.^[1] Albert Small, an alumnus of the University of Virginia, also donated his large personal collection of "autograph documents and rare, early printings of the Declaration of Independence." This collection includes a rare printing of the Dunlap broadside of the Declaration of Independence. Joining the library's existing Dunlap in the Tracy W. McGregor Collection of American History, Small's copy made U.Va. the only American institution with two examples of this, the earliest printing of the nation's founding document. It also includes the only letter written on July 4, 1776, by a signer of the Declaration, Caesar Rodney.^[2] The Albert H. Small Declaration of Independence Collection boasts an interactive digital display which allows visitors to view the historical documents electronically, providing access to children and an opportunity for visitors to manipulate the electronic copies without risk of damage to the original work.^[3]

Though the collections cover a range of fields, the library is best known for the Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History, the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, the William Faulkner collections, Jorge Luis Borges Collections, the Sadleir-Black Collection of Gothic Fiction, extensive book, manuscript, and photography holdings in Virginia history, and original documents of the works, life, and legacy of Thomas Jefferson. Additional strengths include historical papers of James Madison, Dolly Madison and James Monroe, typography and other book arts, trade catalogues, slave narratives, equestrianism and other forms of traditional sports, documents, correspondence and oral records of the Southern Civil Rights Movement, political and public affairs papers of major Virginia political figures, and one of the world's largest collections of miniature books.