8 Offbeat Library Collections

Your local library may be home to an odd or wonderful specialized stash of artifacts. The Smithsonian compiles a list of the nation’s most unusual library collections:

• The Cleveland Public Library sports perhaps the world’s largest collection of chess- and checkers-related material, with more than 30,000 items that include Arab manuscripts and letters from chess masters.

• The University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library in Salt Lake City is home to the largest assembly of Arabic papyrus and parchment documents in the US, including examples of early Islamic legal work.
• Nurse romance novels are the hidden gem of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee library, with more than 400 works supplementing the school’s American Nursing History Collection.

For the full list and more details, click the link below. (More chess stories.)