Quick Guide to Special Collections and University Archives

The manuscripts, photographs, University Archives, and rare books collections in Special Collections and University Archives are the collections that make the University of Oregon Library a research library. These collections provide the materials for original scholarship and the resources through which the present generation of scholars can train the next in research methodologies and critical thinking. These collections, because of their significance, draw faculty, researchers, and talented students to the University, and thus help establish a national reputation for the Library and enhance the prestige of the University. They are at the very heart of the University's research and teaching mission.

The collections include over 100,000 monographs, 17,000 linear feet of manuscripts, 10,000 linear feet of University Archives, 400,000 photographs, 5,000 architectural drawings, 5,000 original drawings and illustrations, and over 20,000 broadsides, pamphlets, postage stamps, autographs, and pieces of ephemera. Among the most notable holdings are the Ken Kesey papers, Abigail Scott Duniway papers, Senator Wayne Morse papers, Paul Wiener papers, James Ivory papers, Ursula Le Guin papers, Doris Ulmann photographs, works by authors and illustrators of children's literature, and the Major Lee Moorhouse photographs of Native Americans. Holdings also include important collections of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts, incunabula and manuscript and archival collections that offer research opportunities in a wide variety of historical and literary subjects.

Welcome to Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA)!

We are the principal repository for the University of Oregon’s historical research collections in all formats including manuscripts, printed books, maps, photographs, and prints.  The archives of the University of Oregon, including historic administrative records and personal papers of many faculty members, comprise a substantial part of the collections.  Overall, the department’s holdings include more than 20 thousand linear feet of manuscript collections.  Located in the north wing of the Knight Library, the Department is open to scholars and researchers regardless of institutional affiliation. Each year we see thousands of researchers who come to consult our resources. 

The archivists and librarians welcome the opportunity to help you with your research.