Archives & Special Collections

Archives & Special Collections (A&SC) is one of western Pennsylvania's largest repositories for manuscripts, rare books, photographs, microfilm, maps, audio visual materials, and more. We recently merged the departments of the Archives Service Center and Special Collections.

Special Collections has relocated its materials to the Archives Service Center (Library Resource Facility) on Thomas Boulevard as of August 2017. However, our reading room in Hillman Library will remain open and normal operations will continue. For questions regarding access to collections, please contact us at 412-648-8190 or ULS-Archives&SpecialCollections@pitt.edu.

Search Digital Collections and Archival Finding Aids

Search both digitized material as well as finding aids for all of the ULS archival and manuscript holdings. A separate search on finding aids will provide you with background information and an inventory of the records found within our archival and manuscript collections.

Browse Our Digital Collections

Browse Our Finding Aids

Looking for information on hours, how to get here, doing research, and ordering reproductions? See our FAQ Page!

Collection Strengths

20th Century Urban Renewal
Audio-Visual Materials
American Schoolbooks
Business and Industry
Children’s Literature
Ethnic Groups in Pittsburgh
History of Books and Printing
Labor

Small Press Activism: The Pamphlet as an Agent for Social and Political Change – Hillman Library, 2nd floor Exhibit Cases
A collection of over 100,000 digitized images, books, maps, artwork, manuscripts, atlases, ephemera, correspondence, and audio-video media.
The University Archives documents the history and traditions of the University of Pittsburgh community!
The Audubon Collection consists of a complete double elephant folio set (435 plates) of Audubon’s Birds of America and his Ornithological Biography.
Visual images from the 1900s-1970s commissioned by the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works