Since its founding in 1946, the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri, has emerged as one of the foremost independent science and technology libraries in the country. Its extensive primary- and secondary-source holdings document the sciences, technology, and engineering disciplines from the 15th century to the present.
 
Each year, the Library offers fully funded fellowships to pre- and post-doctoral scholars of exceptional promise in history of science and related areas of science and technology studies. The Linda Hall Library offers scholars a setting for deep immersion in primary and secondary sources as well as stimulating intellectual exchange with other fellows, in-house scholars, and members of the surrounding scholarly community. Fellowships are awarded on a competitive basis to support residential research stays from one week up to a full academic year. 
 
The Linda Hall Library launched an innovative 80/20 Fellowship in the 2017/18 academic year. To prepare graduate students for diverse career possibilities within and outside the academy, 80/20 pre-doctoral fellows spend 80% of their time pursuing dissertation-related research in the Library’s collections and 20% gaining valuable career-related skills as they plan and curate an exhibition based on their research and the Library’s holdings under the mentorship of the Library’s VP for Public Programs. 

Specialty

Primary and secondary sources that document the sciences, technology, and engineering disciplines from the 15th century to the present

Collections

The collections are especially strong in the following areas: natural history, astronomy, engineering, physical sciences, life sciences, environmental studies, non-western sciences, Cold War sciences, earth sciences, infrastructure studies, aeronautics, and mathematics. 

The Library holds more than 500,000 monograph volumes and more than 48,000 journal titles, including a complete set of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, beginning in 1665. The Library also collects conference proceedings, government publications, and technical reports and holds more than 200,000 industrial standards, unpublished engineering society conference papers, and U.S. patents. The Library has extensive holdings in foreign languages with particular strengths in Soviet and East Asian sciences. 

The Library also holds over 10,000 rare books, including Rheticus, Narratio Prima (Gdansk, 1540); Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (Nuremberg, 1543); Hooke, Micrographia (London, 1655); Newton, Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica (London 1687); Darwin, On the Origin of Species (London, 1859), and many more. 

Collections URL

https://www.lindahall.org/collections/

Holding Highlights

  • History of science, technology, engineering, especially strong in natural history, astronomy, environmental and earth sciences, life sciences, physics, chemistry, aeronautics, infrastructure studies, Cold War sciences, and mathematics
  • Over 500,000 monograph volumes and more than 48,000 journal titles
  • Conference proceedings, reference works, government publications and technical reports, over 200,000 industrial standards, unpublished engineering society conference papers, and U.S. patents
  • Acquired entire American Academy of Arts and Sciences Library in 1947
  • Acquired entire Engineering Societies Library in 1995
  • Over 10,000 rare books, including Rheticus’s Narratio Prima, Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, Hooke’s Micrographia, Newton’s Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica, and Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama Islands
  • Digital collections provide access to nearly 250,000 digitized images of significant rare and fragile materials
https://www.lindahall.org/reference/research-guides/

Fellowships

https://www.lindahall.org/fellowships/

Link to Calendar of Events

https://www.lindahall.org/events/

Link to Podcast

Lecture Videos
Online Exhibitions

Large White Billed Woodpecker (Table 16), from Natural history of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands, Tome I. Image courtesy of Linda Hall Library

Linda Hall Library