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.
Visit the digital publication, Beyond the Bandwagon: Curating Cultural Memory at Milner Library to read essays by scholars and historians that illuminate some of the treasures in Special Collections, along with those in the Dr. Jo Ann Rayfield University Archives.
