Scientific Library

The Scientific Library of the Museum of Man is one of the foremost archives of anthropological literature in San Diego County. It houses a collection of 18,000 volumes of books and 15,000 volumes of scientific journals dating from the early 19th century to the present time. There are facsimile copies of rare Mesoamerican codices and complete runs of the American Anthropologist, the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, American Antiquity, and numerous other journals. The collection holds the Proceedings of the International Congress of Americanists from its inception in 1877. Because anthropology is the study of humanity across time and culture, all of the Library’s materials, from the oldest to the newest, are highly relevant for contemporary research. Its two thousand feet of shelf space is more than 90% full. Acquisitions for the Library are partly paid for out of the Museum’s share in the income of the Whitney Fund for the Scientific Library, founded in 1922 by W. W. Whitney.