Resources for Equestrian Studies

There are many valuable resources, including breed associations, museums, historical societies, and schools.  Here I’ve focused on U.S. book-related sites and libraries that I’ve found especially useful, with a few other favorites. All the sites are open to the public and welcome inquiries.  Many provide related links, newsletters, or blogs, and some offer paid memberships that give access to more information and services.

 

American Veterinary Medical History Society.  Creative and rich documentation of the history of the veterinary profession in America, with many useful links.   www.avmhs.org

Jane Badger Books.  Very informative site devoted to British, North American, and Australian pony books, and their authors and illustrators.  Badger is the author of Heroines on Horseback: The Pony Book in Children's Fiction and the Short Pony Book Bibliography 1930-1970.  www.janebadgerbooks.co.uk

Carriage Museum of America, Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington.   Large research library of books, trade journals, photographs, catalogues, and other documentation of animal-drawn vehicles and related subjects.  https://www.carriagelibrary.org

University of Connecticut, Storrs.  The Northeast Children’s Literature Collection holds more than 400 different editions of Black Beautywww.lib.uconn.edu/location/asc/collections/nclc/

The Cox Library.  Large collection of books and other printed materials on the worldwide history and organization of Thoroughbred horse racing and breeding, in fact and fiction.  www.thecoxlibrary.com

Equine History Collective.   Promotes equine studies as a field that is relevant to all academic disciplines.  Through book reviews, journals, conferences, blogs, and other research avenues, the EHC explores the role of horses and other equids in all human societies and cultures. www.EquineHistory.org

Harness Racing Museum & Hall of Fame, Goshen, NY.  Many thousand items of Standardbred ephemera, books, photos, and videos, as well as a very large collection of Currier & Ives prints.  https://harnessmuseum.com/

Hoofblog.  More than 1600 searchable articles on hoof care, the shoeing profession, and related fields.  With expertise and flair Fran Jurga continues to cover an impressive range of historical, cultural, and current topics on the hoof and equine lameness.   www.hoofblog.com

The Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.  This great research library holds the 7,000-volume Edward Lasker collection of early printed books on the horse and horsemanship, English and American sporting magazines, and other material emphasizing Thoroughbred racing.  Family papers relating to “Lucky” Baldwin’s Rancho Santa Anita are also here.  https://huntington.org/

International Museum of the Horse, Kentucky Horse Park, Lexington.  Thousands of books and archival materials of all subjects, including the collections of early horsemanship scholar Mary Littauer and turf writers Mary Jane Gallaher and Kent Hollingsworth.  www.imh.org

Keeneland Library, Keeneland Race Course, Lexington, KY.  Nearly 30,000 books, ca. 1 million photographic negatives, and thousands of newspaper and magazine articles about all aspects of the Thoroughbred industry.  www.keeneland.com

W.W. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, CA. One of the world’s largest publicly available collections on the Arabian horse.  It also maintains the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association library.  www.cpp.edu/library/special-collections/w.k.-kellogg-arabian-horse-library-collections.shtml

University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.  The Kerlan Collection, a major children’s literature collection, holds the Marguerite Henry papers, original art and related materials for many Paul Brown, Wesley Dennis, and C.W. Anderson titles, and the large Black Beauty collection donated by Ellen B. Wells, co-author of The Annotated Black Beauty.   https://kerlan.umn.edu

Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro.  The Margaret Lindsley Warden Collection for Equine Studies and the Joan Hunt Collection are very large holdings of books, periodicals, and archives that are strong in gaited horse material. https://library.mtsu.edu

National Sporting Library & Museum, Middleburg, VA.  Dedicated to the literature, art, and culture of equestrian, hunting, and other field sports.  Among its over 20,000 books and archival collections are the Daniels, Littauer, and Von Hünersdorf rare book collections, as well as many Paul Brown drawings and books donated by the Brown family.  www.nationalsporting.org 

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. The Fairman Rogers Collection on the Horse and Equitation contains hundreds of pre-20th-century titles that “serve as a foundation for scholarly study of the role of the horse in the technical, scientific, and social evolution of 19th-century Europe and North America.”  library.upenn.edu/detail/collection/fairman-rogers-collection

Thoroughbred Heritage.  A very comprehensive site with portraits, race charts, pedigrees, and other historical information relating to the Thoroughbred horse.  www.tbheritage.com

Tufts University, North Grafton, MA.  The John A. Seaverns Equine Collection, at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, is a lifetime collection of 6500+ books and other printed materials about all equestrian subjects.  Much of it has been digitized.   https://sites.tufts.edu/seaverns2/about-the-collection/

University of Vermont, Burlington.  The Howe Library has much material, old and new, on the Morgan horse.  https://library.uvm.edu

University of Virginia, Charlottesville.   The Marion du Pont Scott Sporting Collection, which began as a personal reference library, is now a major research collection of books and periodicals on many equestrian subjects and related fields.    https://small.library.virginia.edu/collections/featured/273-2/

Yale University, New Haven, CT.  The significant Robert Sterling Clark and Paul Mellon bequests of equestrian books, periodicals, and other printed materials include many rarities.  www.library.yale.edu

Wait, there’s more.  Significant veterinary book collections are held at Cornell University, Iowa State University, University of Kentucky, Michigan State University, University of Missouri, National Agricultural Library, University of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M University, and Washington State University, among others.   The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) in London is a standout, and much of its collection is being digitized. Large holdings of western material, to name a few, are at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY, the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles, and Texas A&M University, College Station.