The American Antiquarian Society (AAS) is an independent research library founded in 1812 in Worcester, Massachusetts. The library's collections document the life of America's people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Collections include books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, broadsides, manuscripts, music, graphic arts, and local histories.

Online Exhibition
Beauty, Virtue and Vice: Images of Women in Nineteenth-Century American Prints
Most of the prints in this exhibit were designed simply to please the eye, but they are also useful to historians who would like to understand how 19th century Americans thought about the world in which they lived. Explored are artistic depictions of the standard of beauty, ideal beauty, women as objects, variations on the standard, true womanhood, women at home, American slavery, women in public life, women as performers, use of women as advertising strategies and more.

Recent Acquisition
Exhibition of the Sutton Methodist Sunday School! Worcester: Charles Hamilton, 1856. AAS member Warren C. Lane donated a group of programs for popular entertainments and theater programs. more ...

Alliance for AAS
Make your gift today and become a member of the Alliance for the American Antiquarian Society

Free public tours of Antiquarian Hall, the Society's library building, are given every Wednesday afternoon at 3 o'clock. The tour lasts about one hour.

Friday, July 3 : The library will be closed in observation of Independence Day

Please note: The library is again open until 8 p.m. on Wednesday evenings. Reading room hours

For a complete listing of upcoming events at AAS, please view our online calendar of events. The library is closed on legal holidays.

Teachers' Institutes
July 22, 23, 28, 29, 30 : Defining Freedom is a collaborative professional development project for teachers
more information

CHAViC Conference
October 16-17 : Destined for Men: Visual Materials for Male Audiences, 1750 - 1880
more information

June 23, 2009
Application instructions for 2010 Fellowships for Creative and Performing Artists and Writers are now available

June 8, 2009
View the illustrated Daguerreotype Collection Inventory now online

May 27, 2009
The list of current fellows and their projects has been announced

May 18, 2009
The latest issue of Almanac is now available online.

April 28, 2009
Illustrated collection descriptions of AAS's calling cards and sentiment cards have been added to the library collections online guide.

April 6, 2009
The latest issue of Common-place is now available online.

Adopt-a-Book
April 1 : It is not too late to make a selection from the second annual Adopt-A-Book catalog

February 19, 2009
The AAS Drawings Collection Inventory is now online. The collection consists of over 550 drawings in graphite, pen, ink and wash, chalk, watercolor and charcoal.

January 22, 2009
AAS announces its History Workshops for K-12 Educators

AAS has a Facebook page. To become a Facebook "fan" of AAS, visit the AAS page and click the "become a fan" link in the upper right-hand corner.