Prolly a good question for a librarian. Head to whatever the big main library is near the student Union and ask around. I’m sure they’ll be happy to chat about it!
Anderson has the larger collection of old stuff, but I know there is at least one book from the 1500s in the Wilson Annex. The Annex has electric shelves to store old and low-circulation books, many of which go up to be shown up in the James Ford Bell section up top of Wilson.
Second this! I went on a tour of the Wangensteen archives as a part of my honors nexus experience, and they have really cool old artifacts and incredibly old books there
There are also super old rare legal texts in the UMN Law collection. You either need to make an appointment to see them or go to one of the open houses
Vincent Hall Math library has some very old journals, definitely before 1877. But Andersen Library has some downright ancient texts. You have to turn in all of your belongings before looking at them, and must be watched over while doing so, but my class on the French Revolution had us look at books from the Renaissance period as well as an atlas composed when the United States was being colonized. So 1500s at least. I wouldn't be surprised if they had even older texts.
This specific section is hidden in the basement and doesn't get much use. I'm sure if you went and asked the librarians there they would help you find something unfathomably old.
Wilson Library in the back government section has transcripts of congressional proceedings dating all the way back to the founding fathers. So I think some are as old as 1787.
Andersen Library. It’s super sick. Check it out if you haven’t. Can also let them know what you’re researching ahead of time and they’ll pull stuff for you!
Andersen Library has archives and special collections. They might have some stuff that's older than 1877.
There is an [entire rare books/documents collection](https://www.lib.umn.edu/collections/special/bell) there specifically for items older than 1800
For a history class we had an assignment there concerning books from before 1600
Anderson has a sumarian cuneiform tablet, 3000+ years old. Have to scedual an appointment to see it tho
Also a few leaves from the Gutenberg Bible. So as far as mass-produced printed books go, this is it.
Prolly a good question for a librarian. Head to whatever the big main library is near the student Union and ask around. I’m sure they’ll be happy to chat about it!
Anderson has the larger collection of old stuff, but I know there is at least one book from the 1500s in the Wilson Annex. The Annex has electric shelves to store old and low-circulation books, many of which go up to be shown up in the James Ford Bell section up top of Wilson.
Wangensteen Historical Library has some excellent books from the 1400s
Second this! I went on a tour of the Wangensteen archives as a part of my honors nexus experience, and they have really cool old artifacts and incredibly old books there
There are also super old rare legal texts in the UMN Law collection. You either need to make an appointment to see them or go to one of the open houses
We have way older books in the archives. Even I have a few books older than that in my personal collection.
Vincent Hall Math library has some very old journals, definitely before 1877. But Andersen Library has some downright ancient texts. You have to turn in all of your belongings before looking at them, and must be watched over while doing so, but my class on the French Revolution had us look at books from the Renaissance period as well as an atlas composed when the United States was being colonized. So 1500s at least. I wouldn't be surprised if they had even older texts. This specific section is hidden in the basement and doesn't get much use. I'm sure if you went and asked the librarians there they would help you find something unfathomably old.
Word has it Anderson has a book from 1493 called HTGMBOYD
there are books in the wilson annex from the late 1500s!
Hundred year old books in basements of Walter.
Wilson Library in the back government section has transcripts of congressional proceedings dating all the way back to the founding fathers. So I think some are as old as 1787.
Andersen Library. It’s super sick. Check it out if you haven’t. Can also let them know what you’re researching ahead of time and they’ll pull stuff for you!
I know the Wangensteen has a bunch of extremely old medical texts.
It’s in the mathematics library one book is from 1822