Virtual Visit: Thomas A. Gray Rare Book and Manuscript Collection

The Thomas A. Gray Rare Book and Manuscript Collection is home to rare and important works about the early American South. The collection represents a lifetime of connoisseurship for Tom Gray, a former director of the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts and cousin of MESDA founder Frank L. Horton. What began as an collection focused on Tom’s home state of North Carolina gradually expanded to include important texts from all seven of MESDA’s southern states. With books and manuscripts spanning four centuries – from 1585 to 1865 – the Gray collection is a perfect complement to the MESDA and Old Salem collections.  Books and manuscripts from the collection are exhibited in the MESDA galleries and are available to researchers.  A selection of highlights are shown below.

Contact the librarian ([email protected] or 336-721-7365) for more information about this collection.