We have a new site for our special collections! For the most complete and up-to-date catalog of our materials, please visit https://archives.forbeslibrary.org/.
The Hampshire Room for Special Collections contains thousands of images documenting local history, including images of farms, factories, shops, schools, and local residents both well known and anonymous. The Northampton image collection comprises prints, glass and film negatives, lantern slides, etchings and stereographs. Other collections include the Elbridge Kingsley, Robert Emrick and Walter Corbin Collections, and the Daily Hampshire Gazette negatives from 1954-2004.
These Images From the Archives allow you to search a portion of the library's special collections which have been digitized. If you have any questions about this collection, please contact us.
Featured Item
Madwimmin Books
Sculpture depicting the interior and exterior of a feminist
bookstore based on Madwimmin Books in Alison Bechdel's comic series
Dykes To Watch Out For. Two figures representing the characters Mo
and Jazeena stand among bookshelves and displays. The walls feature
posters and buttons, and a bulletin board displays miniature
articles and clippings about the lesbian community in Northampton
and Amherst in the 1980s, whose bookstores inspired this work. A
dog and bicycle wait on the sidewalk outside.
Purchased by the Trustees of Forbes Library, 2022
Purchased by the Trustees of Forbes Library, 2022
Featured Collection
Midnight to Midnight: Northampton's self-portrait in 48 hours
Historic Northampton, in collaboration with the Northampton Camera
Club and Forbes Library, invited the people of Northampton to
photograph the city—its people, places and events—for two days in
2014: Friday, May 2nd and Saturday, May 3rd.
Featured Exhibit
125th Anniversary exhibits
Selections from the Forbes Library Archives
In celebration of Forbes Library’s 125th anniversary year (2019), a variety of images and objects from the Library’s local history collections were featured in the Hosmer Gallery alongside the work of contemporary local artists.
These displays will be preserved as online exhibits.
January: Forbes and Calvin Coolidge
February: People at Work
March: Women of Forbes Library
April: The Gregory Wilson Postcard Collection
June: H.E Robbins handcolored wildflower prints
July: Everyday life in 1894 Northampton
August: Posters
September: Children and Education