Library name: The Armstrong Browning Library & Museum, Baylor University

Location: 8th Street and Speight Avenue on the Baylor University campus; physical address is 710 Speight Avenue, Waco, Texas.

Hours: Monday – Friday, 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Admission is free. Visitor information.

Learn more: Watch our video for an in-depth look at the Armstrong Browning Library

What makes this library special: Stepping into this stunning library and museum feels like stepping into the nineteenth century. The marble columns, cathedral windows, parquet floors, and hand-carved bookcases are a perfect complement to the letters, volumes of poetry, and personal memorabilia of famed Victorian poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The Armstrong Browning Library & Museum is dedicated to the lives and works of these two poets and houses the world’s largest collection of Browning material and other rare nineteenth-century books, manuscripts, and works of art.

“I think what makes the Armstrong Browning Library special is that everything about it is unexpected—the architectural details, the colorful stained-glass windows, the works of art that you’ll see throughout the library,” said Director Jennifer Borderud.

“The fact that the world’s largest collection of materials relating to two major British poets would be here is unexpected. I love when people come and visit and they are surprised by what they see, and it immediately turns into a sense of awe.”

What to look for as a first-time visitor: “I would encourage first-time visitors to spend some time in the McLean Foyer of Meditation,” Borderud said. “It’s a grand room in the center of the building that was created to be a place of beauty, to be inspired, to be the next Chaucer, or Shakespeare, or Browning.”

The museum’s fabulous stained-glass windows are another must-see. “We are also known for the 62 stained glass windows that you will see throughout the building, most of which illustrate either Robert or Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poetry.”

The Brownings’ romance: The beautiful and tragic love story of the Brownings is one of the great literary romances in history. Elizabeth Barrett was a talented English poet who was chronically ill and kept at home by her controlling father. She fell in love with a fellow poet, Robert Browning, and they eloped to Italy, where they loved one another devotedly until her death 15 years later.

One of her best-known poems (Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese) begins “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” This poem is written on the wall in the McLean Foyer of Meditation next to a bronze sculpture of the couple’s clasped hands. The sculpture “stands as a symbol of their love story, and it also makes this room one of the most romantic spots on Baylor’s campus,” Borderud said.

Many Baylor couples have gotten engaged at this spot, and many have been married at the library, she said.

Dr. Kristen Pond, Associate Professor in English and Margarett Root Brown Chair in Robert Browning and Victorian Studies at Baylor, said she thinks the Brownings’ love story continues to resonate with readers around the world because “We know so much about it, they wrote so much about it, in their poetry and in their letters. It is a relationship that feels very genuine. They talk about the hardships they encountered; Elizabeth was very ill for most of her life. Robert coming in and being willing to partner with her through that just amazed her. You can hear that gratitude and amazement in her voice. That level of commitment and gratitude is part of love that doesn’t get talked about very much, and it appeals to people.”

The fact that the world’s largest collection of materials relating to two major British poets would be here is unexpected. I love when people come and visit and they are surprised by what they see, and it immediately turns into a sense of awe.

Jennifer borderud, director of the armstrong Browning library

History of the library: Baylor professor Dr. A.J. Armstrong, founder of the library, became interested in Robert Browning at an early age and began to collect books and items associated with the poet beginning in 1905. Visiting Italy in 1909, Armstrong met the poets’ son, Robert Barrett Browning, known as “Pen.” Armstrong continued to collect items, and in 1918 he donated the collection to Baylor.

The collection continues to grow to this day. Curator Laura French scouts and finds new material. “This can be rare books, manuscripts, ephemera, after you physically receive those materials it’s a matter of describing them in the online catalog so people can request them and get them to use them in the future,” she said. The collection includes “hundreds of their manuscripts, thousands of their letters, nearly every single volume of their works that have been published,” French said.

Audience for this library: Most of the researchers at the library are Baylor University graduate and undergraduate students and faculty, working on dissertations, articles, or class presentations, French said. Their Visiting Scholars program brings researchers in from across the United States and other countries for month-long fellowships.

And one last thing: You can schedule a group tour, or walk-in tours are often available, led by student docents. Make sure to check out the bronze doors—they weigh three-quarters of a ton each and are modeled after St. John’s Baptistery in Florence, Italy. The panels illustrate 10 of Robert Browning’s poems.

Borderud loves to see visitors’ faces light up when they see the library for the first time. More than 30,000 people visit each year.

“A visit to the Armstrong Browning Library is very worth your time, if you only have 10 minutes, that’s fine, if you have two hours, that is great,” she said. “But you will come away with a beautiful and memorable experience, and you will feel that sense of awe that I feel every time I come in here.”

Written by Michele Chan Santos, Coordinator, Texas Center for the Book

Above, the ceiling in the McLean Foyer of Meditation.