Books from the John Adams Library at the Boston Public Library.

Deposited with the Boston Public Library in 1894, the John Adams Library includes over 2,700 volumes collected by the second president during his lifetime (1735-1826) as well as hundreds of additional books later donated by his family members. One of the greatest private collections of its day, the Adams Library remains one of the largest original early American libraries still intact. This remarkable collection of 3,510 books spans the fields of classics, literature, history, politics, government, philosophy, religion, law, science, mathematics, medicine, agriculture, language and linguistics, economics, and travel.

The collection is of particular interest to scholars and historians because Adams recorded thousands of interpretive and critical manuscript annotations in the margins of his books. Transcriptions of many of Adams’s annotations and more information about the collection are available by e-mailing johnadamslibrary@bpl.org or calling 617-859-2379. Digitization of this collection has been made possible by the generous support of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.