In addition, the sound and film collections are available for use by appointment only. Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center is one of the world's foremost institutions for literary and cultural research. It offers resources in a number of disciplines and periods, but its principal strength is in its collections of twentieth-century British, American, and French literature. These collections contain not only rare editions but also prepublication materials, including authors' original notes, revised manuscripts, corrected galley proofs and page proofs, as well as letters and other personal and professional documents.
Important collections exist also in photography, theatre arts, and film.
The center houses approximately one million books, thirty million manuscripts, five million photographs, and over one hundred thousand works of art. The Ransom Center's most valuable book is the Gutenberg Bible, housed in a special exhibition case on the first floor. Authors particularly well represented in the center's manuscript collections include Graham Greene, Lillian Hellman, D. H. Lawrence, Carson McCullers, Anne Sexton, George Bernard Shaw, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Tom Stoppard, and Tennessee Williams. The Gernsheim History of Photography Collection includes the works of more than 1,200 photographers and the first photograph ever taken. Large collections of theatrical designs, film manuscripts, and other materials are found in the Norman Bel Geddes collection, the David O. Selznick collection, and the Gloria Swanson archive.