The Ruskin Collection of 866 volumes was presented in 1920 by Charles Eliot Goodspeed, well-known Boston bookseller and father of two alumnae. A comprehensive one-author collection, it contains editions of Ruskin's major works in the original parts, many rare pamphlets, autographs, presentation copies, exhibition catalogs, drawings, and watercolors, as well as biographical and critical material.
Among the collection's treasures is a watercolor self-portrait, and several unpublished sketchbooks of the American artist Francesca Alexander, whom Ruskin befriended in Florence.
Shown: Autograph letter from J. Ruskin to J.P. Faunthorpe, 1881