Museum and Historical Libraries

These are libraries that are part of the collections at a local or national museum, or are libraries maintained by historical societies. They are often used for historical research and are open to the public.

(Note: if a library was originally the private library of a wealthy individual or royal personage, I often categorize their library as a private or royal library, even if it has subsequently been donated to a museum or historical society, particularly if the facility has been substantially maintained in its original character.)

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7801
vam.ac.uk

The National Art Library at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England.

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7802
germansociety.org

The Joseph P. Horner Memorial Library in Philadephia, Pennsylvania. It is both a lending library and a research facility, housed in an original 1888 reading room and recently restored by the Society. The library houses more than 70,000 volumes, three-quarters are in German. It is considered the largest private collection of German books in the United States (outside of universities).

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7803
pinterest.com (T. Time Chic, photographed by Tadao Ando)

The library at the Shibo Ryotaro Memorial Museum in Osaka, Japan. The Museum and library celebrate the life and works of a famous Japanese author, Shibo Ryotaro (1923-1996), who was best known for his novels about Japanese historical events. The very high book walls appear to be curved in this extraordinary photo, but that is an effect of the camera lens used to capture both sides of the towering space. The Museum and Library were designed by architect Tadao Ando and built in 2001. It houses some of Shiba's personal effects, documents and his collection of about 20,000 books. I'm not sure how some of the taller shelves could be accessed, but… wow.

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7804
whatsonningbo.com

The Tianyi Pavilion Library in Ningbo City, China. The library, which was built around 1560, is the oldest existing private library of China and Asia, and one of the world's three oldest private libraries. It was built by Fan Qin, a retired imperial minister, who collected 70,000 books, many of them local records and chronicles. It is now an official state records repository and library and is open to the public.

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7805
slipaway.net

The Francisco de Burgoa Library at the Museum of Oaxacan Cultures in Oaxaca, Mexico. Housed in the Dominican monastery of Santo Domingo de Guzmán, it contains more than 20,000 books dated from the 15th century to the present.