We’ve digitized thousands of records from our collections, and you can see them all here! Search our Audubon prints, get acquainted with the City Photographer Collection, or just peruse the collection guides for our materials.
Welcome to Archives & Special Collections (A&SC), one of the largest archives that documents Western Pennsylvania history. In our collections, you’ll find historic documents, photographs, maps, rare books, newspapers, audio and video recordings, and much more. Do you have questions or can’t find what you’re looking for? Please contact us so one of our expert staff members can help you.
Read about our efforts to address harmful, offensive, misrepresentative, and racist language in our archival collection descriptions.
 We’ve digitized thousands of records from our collections, and you can see them all here! Search our Audubon prints, get acquainted with the City Photographer Collection, or just peruse the collection guides for our materials. |
 Interested in more Pittsburgh history? We work in partnership with other organizations in the area, like the Heinz History Center, to bring you more content on our city. Search by institution, topic, or format to find exactly what you want. |
 Want to know what the Cathedral of Learning looked like while under construction? Maybe find yourself in your college yearbook? Or learn what Pitt students were talking about in the 1920s? It’s all here for you, from digitized yearbooks to historic photographs to a full run of the Pitt News, and much more. Hail to Pitt! |
 Dr. Avinoff is known locally as a former Director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and as the designer of Pitt's Russian Nationality Room |
 The University of Pittsburgh Library System strives to steward the materials within our possession with the highest level of cultural sensitivity. Within Archives & Special Collections, we aim to describe our archival materials in a way that is respectful to, and informed by, the communities who use, create, and are represented in our collections. ...more |
 The Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR) Recordings at Risk program has awarded a $36,826 grant to the University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) to digitize five Pittsburgh area oral history collections held by the Archives and Special Collections Department. |
 Want to Develop New Skills and Competencies? Check Out Our Available Assistantships! |
 The Blue, Gold and Black Digital Archive is a collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh Library System and the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to collect and share materials that reflect the incredible variety of experiences and memories of Black students, faculty, and staff at Pitt. If you are a current or former member of the Pitt community, we encourage you to share YOUR stories and photos! |
 The Center for American Music at the University of Pittsburgh Library System is pleased to announce the acquisition of the Dave Burrell Archive. Burrell was an influential innovator in New York’s free jazz scene, playing alongside trailblazing musicians such as alto saxophonist Marion Brown and tenor saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and David Murray. ...more |
 Pittsburgh was selected to join cities worldwide on Google Arts & Culture, and the library is helping to tell Pittsburgh's story |
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Archives & Special Collections resides in a state-of-the-art home on Hillman Library’s renovated third floor. It contains significant physical and digital exhibition space, an expansive reading room, a large classroom, and, the Text & conText Lab, a partnership between the ULS and the Center for Creativity, that allows for the exploration of text in all its forms.
Visit in person during library open hours or take a virtual tour!
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Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) - Who We Are
A&SC at Hillman Library
320 Hillman Library
University of Pittsburgh
3960 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-648-8190
A&SC at the Archives Service Center
7500 Thomas Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA 15208
412-648-3232
The banner features an image from the August Wilson Archive.
