Library Overview

The University of Louisville Libraries offer over 1,000 special collections. The Department of Special Collections within Ekstrom Library includes an internationally known Photographic Archives, with almost 2 million images. In addition to significant collections of regional and historic photographs, the Photographic Archives preserves the papers of Roy Stryker, the archive of the landmark Standard Oil of New Jersey Photography Project, and photographic fine prints. Also within Special Collections, Rare Books collects literature, book history, and popular culture, and boasts the world's most extensive public collections of Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of Tarzan. Rare Books holds choice collections of rare mathematics books, vintage war posters, and Louisville ephemera.

The University Archives and Records Center serves as the memory of the institution with documents dating back to the 1798 charter of Jefferson Seminary, predecessor of the University of Louisville. University Archives collects records documenting regional history, businesses, ethnic communities, and social action groups. University Archives preserves local political records and is the repository for a number of United States representatives and senators, as well as local officials. The Oral History Center holds nearly 2,000 interviews of regional leaders and activists.

University Libraries' Bridwell Art, Anderson Music, and Kornhauser Health Sciences Libraries each maintain special collections: papers of regional artists and architects, rare art books, 19th-century Louisville music imprints, original scores submitted for the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and documents and artifacts tracing the history of medicine and the university's School of Medicine back to its founding in 1837.

University of Louisville
Ekstrom Library
University Archives and Records Center
Photographic Archives
Louisville, Kentucky 40292
http://library.louisville.edu/
Special.Collections@louisville.edu
(502) 852-6745 (t)
(502) 852-7394 (f)