August Wilson sitting on steps.

Archives & Special Collections

Archives & Special Collections now offers online registration!
Visit the A&SC Aeon Research Portal to create your account.
For more information check out Visiting Archives & Special Collections or the FAQ.

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.

Browse Our Digital Collections Browse Our Finding Aids

Read about our efforts to address harmful, offensive, misrepresentative, and racist language in our archival collection descriptions.

Explore our collections further!

John James Audubon's plate of 2 purple herons.

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.

Map of Fort Pitt and parts adjacent with both rivers from 1761.

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.

Nearly 5,000 students assembled to form the Living Panther to show Pitt Spirit. April 1920

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!

Join us for the Pitt-wide Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition!
The 3MT competition celebrates the exciting research conducted by Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and Doctor of Juridical Science (SJD) students. Competitors vie for prizes as they explain their research in just three minutes. Monday, April 3, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Hillman Library, Archives & Special Collections Room, Third Floor
Join us and explore the research of the Archival Scholars
Archival Scholars in Action highlights the research work and progress of the Archival Scholars Research Award (ASRA) recipients through a series of lightning talks, a panel discussion, and display of a selection of primary sources. Friday, March 31 from 1 – 3 p.m. in the Hillman Library, Third Floor 340 Archives & Special Collections Instruction Room.
Sam Rivers playing the soprano saxophone
Rivers was an American jazz musician and composer. Though most famously a tenor saxophonist, he also performed on soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica, piano, and viola. With a thorough command of music theory, orchestration, and composition, Rivers was an influential and prominent artist in jazz music. more...
Charles and Frankie Pace Sheet Music and Images
Join us in celebrating this important but little-known piece of Pittsburgh history in a Gospel Music Tribute to Charles and Frankie Pace on Saturday, March 25, 2023, 7 p.m., at Ebenezer Baptist Chruch.
Still frame from video of a news video about the August Wilson Archives
August Wilson exhibit highlights monthlong Black History Month celebration in Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh Library System is pleased to announce that students, faculty, researchers, scholars, and the public now have access to the August Wilson Archive in Hillman Library.  The organization of the archive is detailed in the collection finding aid. ... more
Romero Artifacts
See our Horror Studies Collection Coordinator give WTAE TV a tour of the Romero Archive!

Check out our Horror Studies Blog!

University of Pittsburgh Library System - Horror Studies

View our blog and sign up for our monthly newsletter featuring Horror Collection updates, Romero news, horror events, and more!

Take a virtual tour of our new space!

Archives & Special Collections Virtual Tours

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!

Contact Us

Send us an email
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

Archives & Special Collections Facebook Archives and Manuscripts Tumblr Archives Instagram Rare Books Tumblr Archives Twitter

Spotlight on…

Woman wearing a shirt that says "Learn. Share. Transform."

Archives & Special Collections Graduate Student Assistants (GSA) are placed within the University Library System’s Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) during the fall and spring terms of an academic year. In this program, the GSA will gain experience in the skills of an archivist, rare book librarian, or curator of distinctive collections through project-based work and make a public presentation of their work.

We are now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 term.


The banner features an image from the August Wilson Archive.