Special Collections

Special Collections Finding Aids

Our Digital Collections

About Special Collections

Archival materials are records of human experience, collectively documenting pieces of the past that are essential to an understanding of how people have lived, worked, interacted, and thought about the world. They make visible the role that people and organizations have within the scope of history, societies, and individual experiences. Archival materials offer patrons the chance to see these relationships firsthand, through the primary sources, objects, and rare materials that form the bedrock of research, personal inquiry, and teaching practice.

Special Collections are often formed from a mixture of archives, rare books, artwork, ephemera (such as posters, flyers, and programs), objects and textiles, photographs, and original manuscripts that are related to specific topics or collecting areas.

The Special Collections Department at Milner Library holds archival materials including diaries, scrapbooks, institutional and organizational records, circus route books, ledgers, correspondence, photographs, books, works on paper, posters and broadsides, and circus costumes.

Our Major Collection Areas

Rare & Fine Books

From general works to bibliographies, the books in this collection date from the 1400s to the present and cover a range of subjects from literary treasures to medicine to natural history.

Circus & Allied Arts

Photographs, posters, programs, route books, correspondence, business records, band scores, books, and more primarily covering the circus, but also related arts including carnivals, sideshows, and vaudeville.

Lincoln Collection of H.K. Sage

This growing collection of Abraham Lincoln-related materials amassed by donor Harold K. Sage includes over 2,600 books and pamphlets, artworks, and manuscript materials.

Children's Literature & Historical Textbooks

Home to several noteworthy children’s literature collections, including the papers of author Lois Lenski, and historical textbooks from the 18th to mid-20th centuries.