Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) strives to collect materials with enduring historical value that support the University of Pittsburgh’s teaching and research mission. Collections within A&SC are comprised of organizational records, personal papers, and collections created by individuals or groups. This material consists of visual images, audio recordings, architectural records, plat books, atlases, oral histories, maps, printed music, and newspapers. Moreover, A&SC contains thousands of rare books, broadsides, pamphlets, sheet music and serials.  

Archives & Special Collections collecting focus centers around the following topics: 

• Archives of Industrial Society 

• University Archives 

• Archives of Scientific Philosophy  

• Performing Arts 

• History of Publication and Printing 

• Under-Represented Voices 

• Literary Manuscripts 

• Horror and Science Fiction 

• Children’s Literature 

• History of Medicine  

• Archives of Popular Culture 

• Center for American Music 

The A&SC acknowledges that other ULS departments collect unique and rare items including Area Studies, the Frick Fine Arts Library, and the Finney Music Library, and that their areas of focus may overlap or differ from those of the A&SC.