The Frederick E. Brasch Collection of Newton and Newtoniana

In 1941, Frederick E. Brasch, Chief of the Smithsonian Division of the Library of Congress, generously donated to Stanford his remarkable collection of books and manuscripts relating to Isaac Newton and the development of the physical sciences in the 17th century. The collection totals more than 4,000 volumes, and includes several editions of the Principia (including the first edition, which Brasch claimed he bought for $290), and five books owned by Newton himself.