Walk into the Special Collections and University Archives reading room on the second floor of Knight Library, and about the only thing that stands out is the dust on the books lining its shelves.
Hidden from plain view are many of the department’s more intriguing holdings, such as an affidavit written by Abraham Lincoln while he was just another lawyer in Illinois, or the journal entries of Abigail Scott Duniway, which give a firsthand account of her 1852 journey on the Oregon Trail.
Because of limited space and concerns about the preservation of these fragile artifacts, most are stored away behind locked doors and vaults. Yet all of them, from rare books to old University sports memorabilia, are accessible to the public.
All you have to do is ask.
“It would be nice to see more people, especially students, use more of these resources,” Manuscripts Librarian Linda Long said. “(Special Collections) really is a goldmine of information.”
Special Collections has served as the University’s repository for historic and rare materials since 1947. In 1948, its duties were expanded to include University Archives, which houses all official records pertaining to the University.
Since then, the department has amassed a mind-boggling amount of items — most of the inventory consists of donated personal works and effects — into its rare books, photographs and other collections.
Long said there are millions of items in Special Collections.
“In the manuscripts alone, there’s about 20,000 linear feet of documents and unpublished writing,” she said.
Under each collection is a variety of material, with subjects ranging from politics to entertainment. Within the manuscript collection, one can find a letter written by Thomas Jefferson or piles of scripts from the late 1950s for the “Gunsmoke” and “The Rifleman” television shows.
A collection donated in 1968 by former Sports Illustrated reporter Jack Olsen includes 34 reels of audiotape featuring conversations with a promising young boxer named Cassius Clay, who would later become Muhammad Ali.
As valuable as some of the holdings may seem, Normandy Helmer, coordinator of preservation and digital services, said she sees their most important function as primary resource material in research.
“We have bits and pieces that would bring us a lot of money individually,” she said. “But collections like ours are really priceless, not because of how much you can get for a piece or a document, but because you can sit down and personally examine it.”
Erik Loomis, a Ph.D. history student from the University of New Mexico, visited the campus recently, gathering information for a dissertation on the timber industry in the Northwest. He was able to uncover some of the financial records and ledgers of lumber firms from the 1920s in the department’s Oregon Collection.
“It has been a positive experience,” Loomis said. “(Special Collections) is as good as any archive I’ve ever seen.”
Director of Special Collections James D. Fox said it is his hope that as more of the listings of the collection are made available on the Web — most are currently not accessible through the library’s online catalogue — the facility will begin to entice more visitors.
“What we’re trying to do is make Special Collections open to all in the community and even the state,” he said. “All of these exhibits and items belong to them.”