The collections of the Mary W. Runnells Rare Book Room include 7,500 book volumes and 3,000 original works of art. The collections of the Rare Book Room represent a century of acquisitions from a wide variety of sources, including a number of personal collections of past Museum researchers as well as routine acquisitions by the library. The core of the book collections held in the Rare Book Room consists of several specialized subject collections formed by individuals in areas such as ornithology, mineralogy, gemology, natural history, travel and exploration and the anthropology and culture of China. The art collection encompasses works related to scientific illustration, anthropology and natural history.
