The National Civil War Museum continues to grow not only in artifacts, but also as a center for research. Our library contains many rare volumes, including first editions written during or shortly after the Civil War. Recently, that collection expanded dramatically thanks to an extraordinary opportunity.
I received a call from the Brooklyn Public Library — now part of the Brooklyn Center for History in Brooklyn, New York — regarding its large Civil War book collection, which had been placed in storage and was no longer accessible to the public. The institution generously offered the collection to The National Civil War Museum, and we gratefully accepted. Known as the Halliday Civil War Collection, it includes 4,786 volumes and arrived here in early February.
The collection was assembled by Frank S. Halliday between 1866 and 1908, when it was sold to the Brooklyn Public Library. Halliday served as a First Lieutenant in the 2nd Rhode Island Volunteer Infantry Regiment from 1861 until the war’s end in 1865. He was wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness in 1864 and again at Sailor’s Creek in April 1865, just days before the Confederacy collapsed. During this same period, his father Samuel served as an assistant pastor to famed abolitionist minister Henry Ward Beecher, brother of Uncle Tom’s Cabin author Harriet Beecher Stowe.
When the collection arrived at the Museum, it came packed in 268 boxes on ten pallets and was temporarily placed in artifact storage. However, the pallets quickly filled the aisles and had to be unpacked and shelved in previously unused space. The books will ultimately be moved into the museum library, effectively doubling the size of our reference holdings.
Cataloging this remarkable collection will be a major undertaking, but well worth the effort. When acquired by the Brooklyn Public Library in 1908, the Halliday Civil War Collection was considered one of the finest Civil War book collections in the United States. With its addition, The National Civil War Museum is well on its way toward restoring that distinction.
We invite you to follow the progress of the library as we integrate this extraordinary addition into our growing research resources.