diff --git a/headers/private/textencoding/CharacterSet.h b/headers/private/textencoding/CharacterSet.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2df290e897
--- /dev/null
+++ b/headers/private/textencoding/CharacterSet.h
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+#ifndef CHARACTER_SET_H
+#define CHARACTER_SET_H
+
+#include <SupportDefs.h>
+
+namespace BPrivate {
+
+/**
+ * @file   CharacterSet.h
+ * @author Andrew Bachmann
+ * @brief  Defines BCharacterSet
+ *
+ * @see http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets
+ **/
+
+class BCharacterSet {
+    /**
+     * @class BCharacterSet
+     * @brief An object holding a variety of useful information about a character set.
+     *
+     * This information has been derived from the IANA standards organization.  
+     * Since IANA provides several names for some encodings, this object also
+     * provides for aliases.
+     **/
+public:
+	/**
+     * @brief default constructor, for stack allocated character set objects
+     **/
+    BCharacterSet();
+	/**
+     * @brief constructor, for internal use only
+     **/
+    BCharacterSet(uint32 id, uint32 MIBenum, const char * print_name,
+                  const char * iana_name, const char * mime_name,
+                  const char ** aliases);
+    /**
+     * @brief returns an id for use in BFont::SetEncoding
+     * @return an id for use in BFont::SetEncoding
+     **/
+    uint32 GetFontID(void) const;
+    /**
+     * @brief returns an id for use in convert_to/from_utf8
+     * @return an id for use in convert_to/from_utf8
+     **/
+    uint32 GetConversionID(void) const;
+    /**
+     * @brief returns an id for use in MIBs to identify coded character sets
+     * @return an id for use in MIBs to identify coded character sets
+     **/
+    uint32 GetMIBenum(void) const;
+    /**
+     * @brief returns the IANA standard name for this character set
+     * @return the IANA standard name for this character set
+     **/
+    const char * GetName(void) const;
+    /**
+     * @brief returns a user interface friendly name for this character set
+     * @return a user interface friendly name for this character set
+     **/
+    const char * GetPrintName(void) const;
+    /**
+     * @brief returns the MIME preferred name for this character set, or null if none exists
+     * @return the MIME preferred name for this character set, or null if none exists
+     **/
+    const char * GetMIMEName(void) const;
+    /**
+     * @brief returns the number of aliases for this character set
+     * @return the number of aliases for this character set
+     **/
+    int32 CountAliases(void) const;
+    /**
+     * @brief returns the index'th alias, or NULL if out of range
+     * @return the index'th alias, or NULL if out of range
+     **/
+    const char * AliasAt(uint32 index) const;
+    
+private:
+    uint32     id;            //! id from convert_to_utf8/convert_from_utf8
+    uint32     MIBenum;       //! for use in MIBs to identify coded character sets
+    const char * print_name;  //! user interface friendly name
+    const char * iana_name;   //! standard IANA name
+    const char * mime_name;   //! the preferred mime name
+    const char ** aliases;    //! aliases for this character set
+    uint32     aliases_count; //! how many aliases are available
+};
+
+}
+
+#endif CHARACTER_SET_H