Turnbull General Collection

The Turnbull General Collection contains 40,000 books related to areas outside New Zealand and the Pacific. It includes works on Milton, and the history of the book.

The Turnbull General Collection forms part of the Alexander Turnbull Library collections.

The collection was developed from the collecting interests of Alexander Horsburgh Turnbull, and is particularly strong in 19th and early 20th century English literature.

The main collecting focus now is to support other specialist areas in the Turnbull Library collections, especially material relating to the works of John Milton and the history of print culture.

More about the Milton Collection

More about the Rare Books and Fine Printing Collection

collections general bookshelf
Selection of Victorian publishers’ bindings from the Turnbull General Collection.

The Turnbull General Collection includes:

  • accounts of voyages and travels
  • supporting literature about the works of Milton
  • bibliographies, including many historical library catalogues
  • biographies
  • family history resources
  • limited and first editions, and fine printing
  • examples of 19th and early 20th century publishers' bindings
  • children's books dating from 1831 onwards

More about the Alexander Turnbull Library collections

Access to items in the Turnbull General Collection

Original items from the Turnbull General Collection are available at the Library's Wellington Reading Room.

This collection is only partially catalogued online. Please consult the fiche catalogue in the Reading Room for offline access.