Founded in 1935 with the donation of Thomas B. Lockwood’s antiquarian collection, the Rare Books Collection comprises over 17,000 volumes from ca. 1450 to the early twentieth century, including all four 17th-century Shakespeare Folios, important first editions of English literature like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, significant publications in the history of science including Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, fine press publications from the Kelmscott and Doves presses, and Western New York imprints. Additionally, it contains manuscript collections, a rare coin and medallion collection, and other materials, including three original illustrations by William Blake.