James Ford Bell Library

The James Ford Bell Library is a special collection of the University of Minnesota Libraries located on the University of Minnesota Minneapolis campus.

It is named for its first donor and patron James Ford Bell, founder of the General Mills Corporation in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The collection consists of some 40,000 rare books, maps, manuscripts, broadsides, pamphlets and other materials documenting the history and impact of international trade and cultural exchange in the pre-modern era, before ca.

The library is known for its globe gores copy of the 1507 Waldseemuller world map, and it acquired a copy of the 1602 Impossible Black Tulip Chinese world map in 2009.

In March 2018, the Bell moved again to its current location in the university's Elmer L. Andersen Library building.

A reading room at the James Ford Bell Library when it was still located in the Wilson Library building.
Elmer L. Andersen Library at the University of Minnesota