Department of Rare Books Special Collections and Preservation

Through letters, photographs, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, broadsides, and banners, the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation gives a rich voice to the history of women’s suffrage.

May Bragdon didn't have access to Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat, but the diaries she wrote from 1893 to 1914 include many of the same compelling visual elements. After a five-year digitization and transcription project, this resource is now available online through River Campus Libraries.

As the National Park Service turns 100, many remember photographer Ansel Adams for his iconic images of the American West and Yosemite. But when Adams was hired to photograph the University campus in 1952, he was not yet America’s most well-known photographer.

Buttons, bumper stickers, photographs, and video footage ranging from the era of Franklin Delano Roosevelt through John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton, housed in the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, bring historical political campaigns to life.

Thomas Dewey was never president of the United States—no matter what the headlines said. His letters, photographs, recordings, and campaign buttons are available to the public for research in the department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation.

"What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?" Frederick Douglass delivered his rousing oration on July 5th at Rochester's Corinthian Hall. An original printing of the speech has been digitized by Rare Books and Special Collections and can be read online.

Throughout National Poetry Month, faculty and students will share their favorite poems as well as the poetic richness that can be found across the University, including this handwritten manuscript of Hyam Plutzik's poem, "Bomber Base" from Rare Books and Special Collections.

A lifetime of scholarly work by one of the University’s most preeminent political science professors is now available to researchers across the world. For the first time, the papers of Richard Fenno, Jr., Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Department of Political Science, are easily accessible through a new web portal: www.richardfenno.com.

The AIDS Education Collection, housed in the River Campus Libraries’ Rare Books and Special Collections department, is comprised of more than 8,000 posters from 124 countries in 68 languages and dialects. An exhibit from the collection and the World AIDS Day Scientific Symposium hosted at the University's Center for AIDS Research mark World AIDS Day in Rochester.

On Saturday, Oct. 18, two popular experts on University of Rochester history—Paul Burgett, vice president and senior advisor to the president and Melissa Mead, University archivist—will highlight some its most significant milestones and retell some of its best stories.