Melville’s Print Collection

In 2020 scholars Robert K. Wallace and Samuel Otter set out to create a website that would allow viewers to see all the prints Herman Melville is known to have collected, to appreciate the passion with which he acquired them, and to recognize the illumination they bring to his life, his writing, and his living legacy as an interdisciplinary intellect and global citizen.
Join us as we present a virtual lecture by Wallace and Otter during which they will discuss their findings and progress creating Melville’s Print Collection Online. Discussion will include the importance of the collection held by The Berkshire Athenaeum and its role in bringing Melville’s passion for collecting to light.

This event is free, but  reservations are required; email melville@berkshirehistory.org to receive the lecture link.

Melville was known to have collected prints and etchings, but until 1984 no actual prints had surfaced. It was in that year that Wallace came upon a memorandum in the Houghton Library at Harvard University indicating that Eleanor Melville Metcalf, Herman’s granddaughter, had donated three portfolios of engravings from his personal collection of art to the Berkshire Athenaeum in 1952. Since that time Wallace has identified 420 works known to have been collected by Melville.

Image:  Persian Tile with Figure of a Horseman and Bird in a Fanciful Landscape; Collection of Berkshire County Historical Society