Special Collections and University Archives hold over 3,000 collections; more than a million items ranging from medieval codices and rare books to literary and historical manuscripts, university archives, original art, photographs, architectural drawings, and ephemera. The department preserves regional history, provides curriculum support, and assists amateur and scholarly researchers in many fields, including Japanese Studies.
Gertrude Bass Warner (1863-1951) was an art enthusiast, internationalist, and traveler. On her first trip to Asia in 1904, she became fascinated with the region and began, with her husband Murray Warner, to collect art and documentation of art and culture in Asia.The collection documents Asian art, culture, and architecture before World War II, in China, Japan, Korea and Cambodia.
The University of Oregon holds one of the largest collections of Japanese shrine and temple votive slips (nosatsu or senshafuda) in North America.