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
Where the Mountain Meets the Moon
Archival pigment print of an original illustration for Where the
Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin.
A red dragon flies across the night sky with full moon, clouds, and mountain.
Purchased by the Trustees with BIPOC Art Committee funds, 2022
A red dragon flies across the night sky with full moon, clouds, and mountain.
Purchased by the Trustees with BIPOC Art Committee funds, 2022
Featured Collection
Fine Arts
The Forbes Library holds a substantial collection of paintings,
engravings, photographs, and other works by local, regional and
nationally-known artists of the 18th to the 21st centuries.
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