The Lewis Walpole Library, a department of Yale Library, set in eighteenth-century buildings with twenty-first century amenities on fourteen acres on historic Main Street in beautiful Farmington, Connecticut, offers a unique research experience. Researchers spend days in our beautiful reading room and evenings in lively conversation with other researchers who also work primarily on Britain in the long 18th century. The peaceful surroundings afford residential scholars time to process research findings and write without distraction.

The Library’s collections support study in nearly all aspects of British life in the long eighteenth century through the end of the Georgian era, with unsurpassed holdings related to Horace Walpole and his contemporaries. In addition, the archival collections of library founders W.S. Lewis (1895-1979) and Annie Burr Lewis (1902-1959) document an extensive personal and professional network of Anglo-American connections. Knowledgeable staff offer individualized support on identifying and using relevant collection materials.

The library welcomes researchers who will benefit from time spent using our collections. We also award four-week fellowships and two-week travel grants, and Yale Graduate Student Summer Fellowships as well as Charles A. Ryskamp Travel Grants to Yale seniors.