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Archives and Manuscript Collections

This is a selective guide to finding archives and manuscript collections. It includes catalogs and finding aids at Columbia, as well as national catalogs and databases. It also includes a list of national archives and libraries, college and university collections, and historical society archives.

Online catalogs and finding aids

Columbia University

CLIO contains records for archives, architectural prints & drawings, manuscript collections, and oral history transcripts.  Please consult CLIO's "Looking for archives and manuscripts?" help documentation for advice on limiting searches to manuscript material.  CLIO does not include records in the Law, Health Sciences, or Teachers College  libraries. Please contact these libraries directly for information about their collections. The records in the Union Theological Seminary archives are included, but the "archival collections" limit does not currently include this collection.

National Databases

  • The RLIN AMC File, a large catalog of archives and manuscript collections, which may also be searched using Eureka. RLIN tends to focus on the holdings of university and research libraries.

  • Service restricted to members of the Columbia community Archives USA, includes the pre-1984 National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC), and indexes The National Inventory of Documentary Sources, a fiche collection reproducing the finding aids of American and British repositories. The excellent search engine provides a variety of options including searching in date ranges and limiting to collections in specific states, cities, or repositories.

  • Service restricted to members of the Columbia community WorldCat is a wonderful database for archival research, and is often the only place to find corporate archives, church records, historical society records and more. Use the advanced search screen, and limit your format to "mixed media".

  • Service restricted to members of the Columbia community Archival Resources, a small but growing (and increasingly useful) database of online finding aids.

  • Service restricted to members of the Columbia community RLG Cultural Materials Database provides digital images of more than 112,000 artifacts, including photographs, maps, documents, works of art, and other cultural objects from museums and libraries. Each item is fully cataloged and searchable.

Printed catalogs and finding aids, arranged by topic, country, or repository, are among the many useful reference works located in Butler Reference Department, 301 Butler Library and in the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, Butler 6th Floor East.

Service restricted to members of the Columbia community Access Restrictions: available to current Columbia faculty, staff and students only.

National Libraries

 

Archives & Manuscript Collections in the United States

Repositories Outside the United States

UNESCO Archives Portal, a comprehensive listing of national, regional, municipal, and university archives.

Andorra

Australia

see Repositories of Primary Sources: Asia and the Pacific for a more complete listing.
Austria

See Repositories of Primary Sources: Europe for a more complete listing.

Belarus

Belgium

See also Repositories of Primary Sources: Europe

Canada

China Croatia 
Czech Republic  Denmark Estonia Europe  Finland  France  Germany  Great Britain 
Hungary 
Ireland  Italy  Latvia  Lithuania  Macedonia  The Netherlands  Poland  Russia 
Serbia  Slovakia 
Slovenia  Spain  Sweden Switzerland 
Ukraine  Yugoslavia 

For assistance in finding or using these tools, please see a reference librarian or send e-mail to reference@columbia.edu

Archives and Manuscript Collections Outside Columbia is maintained by Sarah Spurgin Witte.


Please send comments and corrections to: spurgin@columbia.edu 
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Last update: 2007-09-13