Today’s Phillips Library is the result of the integration of the James Duncan Phillips Library of the Essex Institute with the Stephen Phillips Library of the Peabody Museum of Salem in 1992, when their parent organizations merged. It is the beneficiary of hundreds of years of work to acquire books, manuscripts and other material via gift, purchase and exchange.

Since PEM's founding as the East India Marine Society (EIMS) in 1799, a library has been at the core of our institution. The society’s original articles of association called for “an adjoining room to deposit the Books, Papers, & charts [sic],” and its formal bylaws published in 1808 instructed members “bound to sea” to deposit, upon their return, a log of their voyages. In 1804, society members elected the scientist, mathematician and navigator Nathaniel Bowditch as the first inspector of journals – in other words, our first librarian. He fulfilled this role until 1820.

In 1868, the EIMS reorganized into the Peabody Academy of Science, and among its formal governing principles was the establishment of “a working library” for which “the collection of the necessary books should be an object of the first importance,” according to the First Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Academy of Science (1869). Its 1915 name change to the Peabody Museum of Salem affirmed its three areas of focus: ethnology, natural history, and maritime history. When the need for expanded library space was recognized, the museum constructed the Stephen Phillips Library in Plummer Hall and named the reading room in honor of the Saltonstall family.

On a parallel track, in 1821, the Essex Historical Society (EHS) established itself for the purpose of "collecting and preserving...the civil history of the county of Essex." The Essex County Natural History Society formed in 1836, and then merged with the EHS in 1848 to form the Essex Institute. The Institute’s James Duncan Phillips Library was located in the John Tucker Daland House; its collection strengths were Essex County, natural history, science, domestic life, religion, decorative arts, genealogy and literature.

The Phillips Library’s vast collection includes manuscripts, books, broadsides, maps, ephemera and photographs, as well as one of the world’s largest assemblages of ships’ logbooks. The scope of the library is international and nearly encyclopedic, reflecting PEM’s collections in all media and across all curatorial departments in addition to its own strengths.

Notable Collections
Essex County History
The library’s extensive holdings from and about Essex County reflect the social, cultural and economic values of one of the nation’s earliest settled regions, encompassing its industrial cities, ports, agricultural towns and religious centers. Materials include reports, circulars, directories, advertisements, ephemera and other publications of Essex County societies, businesses, municipalities, publishers and other institutions.

Nathaniel Hawthorne
The library continues to build on a comprehensive collection of more than 3,000 volumes by and about Salem-born novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne – including editions with decorated bindings designed by artists such as Sarah Wyman Whitman – acquired from businessman and scholar C. E. Frazer Clark Jr. in 1983. The library also holds a modest collection of personal and professional papers written by the Scarlet Letter author and members of his family.

Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection
Massachusetts-based collectors Chester and Davida “Davey” Herwitz engaged with modern Indian art and artists for more than 30 years. They donated their library of more than 6,000 books and their personal archive of artist files, correspondence, photographs, slides, recordings, films and records of their collecting activities to PEM, instantly establishing a new area of exceptional coverage among the library’s holdings.

Edward Sylvester Morse Papers
Edward Sylvester Morse played multiple important roles in the history of the Peabody Essex Museum: curator at the Essex Institute, editor of The American Naturalist, and director of the Peabody Museum. He was also an early collector and student of Japanese art, as well as a biologist, archaeologist, ethnologist, mechanical draftsman, scientific illustrator, professor and author, among many other pursuits. Selections from his papers are digitized and available online.

Herbert Offen Research Collection
Scott Offen and his family have supplied crucial support in gathering materials on Asian furniture, architecture and gardens. These donations have been made in memory of Herbert Offen, a passionate devotee of Chinese culture, who served in China during World War II and resided there for several years. The Herbert Offen Research Collection focuses on China, but includes supporting sections that explore Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia at large. In the spring of 2004, the Offen family made an initial gift of 490 books and generous funds to continue purchasing new and antiquarian books. Over the years the collection has grown to over 4,600 titles and is now one of the finest research collections for scholars and enthusiasts in these fields.

The Pingree Papers
This vast archive of records relates chiefly to David Pingree (1795-1863) and his descendants. Pingree held substantial interests in maritime trade through the first half of the 19th century. He owned or partially owned dozens of merchant ships that traded across the globe. In the 1840s, Pingree began purchasing land in Maine and New Hampshire, including around Mount Washington. Selections from the Pingree Papers are digitized and available online.

Remond Family Papers
The papers of this prominent African American family of Salem include agreements, correspondence, menus, invoices, bills of lading (shipping receipts) and miscellaneous papers that reflect John Remond’s catering and cookery career. The letters of John's son Charles Lenox Remond contain discussions of anti-slavery and abolitionist issues. The entire collection is digitized and available online.

The Salem Witch Trials Papers
From 1980 to 2023, Phillips Library was the temporary repository of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s collection of legal records from the 1692 Salem witch trials. The documents were returned to the Judicial Archives following the expansion and modernization of the Massachusetts State Archives facility. Thanks to a comprehensive digitization project undertaken by the library, the documents are now freely accessible to researchers around the world.

Frederick Townsend Ward Collection of Books on China
One of the world’s outstanding collections of Western-language books, pamphlets, periodicals, rare maps and prints on the history of imperial China, this collection includes firsthand accounts of Western travelers in China and the interactions of China with the West up to the early 20th century. Copies of many of these items were destroyed in China during the Cultural Revolution.

The library welcomes suggestions! Use this form to recommend an item for our collection. Suggest a purchase.

Thank you for your interest in donating to the Phillips Library. If you would like to offer an item for donation, please email our Collections team at pem_collection@pem.org. Your offer will be forwarded to the library for consideration. We are unable to accept unsolicited items — please do not send items you wish to donate until you have been contacted by library staff.

Gifts are accepted when the materials fall within the scope of the library’s collecting interests. Donations are made with the understanding that Phillips Library retains the right to dispose of duplicate, out-of-scope, format-obsolete, unwanted or damaged donations at the time of the gift, or in future as the collection is reviewed and assessed. As of 2022, we will not accept materials on deposit or loan.