Over a period of some seventy years, Susan Minns assembled the largest and most comprehensive private collection of material on the Dance of Death. In addition to books and manuscripts, her collection included prints, bookplates, coins, medals, and curios depicting Death.

Susan Minns was a descendant of William Minns of Great Yarmouth, who immigrated to Boston in 1737. Two of his sons became involved in the book trade as printers and later as publishers. William, the eldest son and Susan's great uncle, was a Loyalist who after 1779 made his home in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he edited and published the Weekly Chronicle from 1786 to 1826. William's brother and Susan's grandfather, Thomas, established himself as a printer in Boston. In 1794 he became a partner of Alexander Young in the publication of the Massachusetts Mercury (later the New England Palladium and Mercury). In June 1796 the firm of Young and Minns was appointed...