Library Overview
With the opening in 2004 of the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library and the affiliated Mary and David Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture, which organizes and sponsors exhibitions, programs, and visiting research fellowships, the University of Virginia (UVa) Library has asserted its role as a premier destination for the study and appreciation of the American journey. Known primarily for the Tracy W. McGregor Library of American History, the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, and the Albert H. Small Declaration of Independence Collection, the holdings include rare imprints, manuscripts, and maps pertaining to the founding of the American colonies, the early Republic, and the Civil War; papers of UVa founder Thomas Jefferson; records of prominent Virginia families and plantations; early and contemporary African-Americana; as well as primary collections of major American authors, including Walt Whitman, Willa Cather, Robert Frost, and William Faulkner.
Additional literary collections include the Lillian Gary Taylor collection of American bestsellers, the Marvin Tatum collection of contemporary poetry and prose, the Sadleir-Black collection of Gothic fiction, the John Henry Ingram collection on Edgar Allan Poe, the Douglas H. Gordon collection of French books, and the Jorge Luis Borges collection.
Other notable collections represent the wide variety and extent of the holdings, such as the Marion duPont Scott sporting collection, the Paul Victorius evolution collection, the McGehee Lindemann miniature book collection, the Brenda Forman collection of mechanical and pop-up books, and the Edward L. Stone typography collection. American sheet music, shape-note hymnals, WPA folklore, and prominent American composers are also well represented, as are the papers of prominent Virginia politicians and UVa faculty. Including University Archives collections, the present holdings comprise some 311,000 volumes, 15,686,000 manuscripts, 213,000 photographs and prints, 9,000 reels of microfilm, 6,200 audio and video recordings, 3,000 maps, as well as realia and other formats.
University of Virginia
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
PO Box 400110
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
http://www.lib.virginia.edu/small/
(434) 243-1776 (t)
(434) 924-4968 (f)
