Country United States Established 1992 (1992) Phone +1 978-745-1876 Owner Peabody Essex Museum Architect Gridley J. F. Bryant | Type Special library Director Sidney E. Berger Architectural style Italianate architecture Staff 8 | |
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Location Essex Street, Salem, Massachusetts Items collected books, journals, newspapers, magazines, ephemera, maps, and manuscripts Address 132 Essex St, Salem, MA 01970, USA Hours Open today · 10AM–5PMThursday10AM–5PMFriday10AM–5PMSaturday10AM–5PMSunday10AM–5PMMondayClosedTuesday10AM–5PMWednesday10AM–5PMSuggest an edit Similar Peabody Essex Museum, Cotting‑Smith Assembly House, Yin Yu Tang House, Gardiner‑Pingree House, Salem Athenaeum | ||
The Phillips Library of the Peabody Essex Museum is a rare books and special collections library located in the Essex Institute Historic District of Salem, Massachusetts. It "is made up of the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem and Essex Institute, which merged in 1992. Both had libraries named for members of the Phillips family." The Phillips Library reading room is located in Plummer Hall on Essex Street, with offices in the connected John Tucker Daland House.
Plummer Hall was originally built for the Salem Athenaeum in 1857. The Athenaeum provided for space for the Essex Institute and several other groups, and sold the building to the Essex Institute in 1907. The reading room underwent restoration in 1998. Both buildings closed in November 2011 for an extensive renovation. The Phillips Library Reading Room reopened in August 2013 at its temporary location at 1 Second Street, Peabody, MA.
Collections
"The library, with its gold-leaf pillars, and busts of Nathaniel Bowditch and George Peabody, is best known for holding the original 1692 Salem witchcraft trials papers, and early works by Nathaniel Hawthorne." Collection subjects include art and architecture, Essex County, maritime history, natural history, New England, voyages and travels, Asia, Oceania, and Native American culture. Some featured collections include the C. E. Fraser Clark Collection of Hawthorniana, the Frederick Townsend Ward Collection of Western-language materials on Imperial China, and the Herbert Offen Research Collection.