Library Overview

Special Collections is home to one of the nation's finest collections of printed texts on the borderlands of the Southwest and Arizona. These collections document the region's culture and history, including accounts of Native Americans and their ancestors, the impact of Spanish and Mexican settlement, and the influx of Anglo-Americans and others into the region during the 19th century. These vast collections contain volumes in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences, including fiction by Anglo-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and Native Americans; extensive materials on Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico; state and local documents covering southern Arizona; Western pulp fiction; juvenile fiction; and cookbooks; as well as a large pamphlet and ephemera collection documenting the region.

Established in 1958, Special Collections houses a large number of books, pamphlets, ephemera, broadsides, photographs and significant primary resources in the manuscript and archival collections. Holdings include rare books dating to the 15th century and fine facsimile editions, the history of science, Southwestern Americana and borderlands history, fine and theater arts, British and American literature, and the art of the book.

The manuscript collections also emphasize the history and literature of Arizona and the borderlands of the Southwest. Within these collections, one finds journals of explorers, diaries of settlers, papers of prominent Arizonans, and records of small businesses. It also houses the papers of Arizona politicians, including Morris K. Udall, Stewart Udall, Dennis DeConcini, and Jim Kolbe.

The photograph and graphic collections encompass a variety of research materials such as photographs, postcards, historical maps, and ephemera, most of which are related to various aspects of the history, geography, arts, and industries of Arizona and the Southwest.

University of Arizona Library
Special Collections
1510 E. University Blvd.
PO Box 210055
Tucson, Arizona 85721-0055
http://speccoll.library.arizona.edu/
(520) 621-6423 (t)
(520) 621-2709 (f)