The Widener Library has just come into possession of a remarkable collection of English historical broadsides and proclamations printed between 1626 and 1700. The collection, which includes many from Lord Polwarth's library, has been formed during the past quarter century by a well-known collector and sold on his behalf to Harvard by Messrs. Dobell of Charing Cross Road. The only collections to rival it were those in England of Colonel F. Grant and J. E. Hodgkin, both now dispersed, and that in the possession of Lord Crawford.

There are nearly 800 separate pieces. Four relate to Nell Gwynne and the Duchess of Portsmouth. A large and valuable collection concerns the Duke of Monmouth and the rising in the west of England and an even more wonderful series concerns the Rump Parliament, among which are many of a satirical character. Another extraordinary series printed in 1659 deals with the affairs leading to the restoration of the Monarchy, also various ordinances issued by the Royalist and by Commonwealth Parliaments, and a large number concerning the doings of Charles I during the most eventful period of his history. Accounts of fires form another feature of the collection.