Library Overview

Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections' (MASC) unique holdings consist of manuscripts, historical photographs, rare books, maps, ephemera, University Archives, and other special collections—approximately 17,500 linear feet of primary source material and 40,000 printed items.

Manuscript collections chronicle the exploration, settlement, and development of the Pacific Northwest. Prominent among these are the Pierre Jean De Smet Papers of a 19th-century missionary-priest; the featured McWhorter Collection; the Loran Olsen Papers preserving Nez Perce music; the Frank Chin Oral History Collection documenting Japanese-American resistance to internment during World War II; the Black Oral History Collection; papers of political leaders including Thomas Foley and Catherine May Bedell; archives of Northwest small presses, e.g., Copper Canyon Press; and the Westin Hotels Archives. Also noteworthy are the Regla Papers, spanning over three centuries of Mexican history; the correspondence of such modern British writers as the Sitwells, Roger Fry, and Leonard Woolf; the Moldenhauer Music Archives, papers of 20th-century European and American composers Elizabeth Gyring, Solomon Pimsleur, and Hans Rosbaud; photographs and letters of alumnus Edward R. Murrow; and Frank Matsura Photographs depicting pioneer life in Okanogan County.

Printed materials range from 52 incunabula to modern first editions, small-press books, Washington Territorial Imprints, and early Washington maps. The Walker Library—probably the first private library in the Pacific Northwest-remains intact in MASC.

The core of the Modern Literary Collections is the personal library of Leonard and Virginia Woolf; works by and about "Bloomsbury Group" authors; British and American women authors; 20th-century British authors; and a comprehensive collection of Hogarth Press titles. Historical in scope, the Veterinary History Collection also addresses animal welfare. An extensive collection of angling titles includes first editions of Izaak Walton's Compleat Angler. American popular culture is reflected in the counter-culture Comix Collection.

Washington State University
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Terrell Library, Suite 12
PO Box 645610
Pullman, Washington 99164-5610
http://www.wsulibs.wsu.edu/holland/masc/masc.htm
mascref@wsu.edu
(509) 335-6691 (t)
(509) 335-1889 (f)