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Digital Collections

Special Collections digitizes selections from our holdings to increase access to unique and rare material via the World Wide Web. Here you can find from a variety of collections containing such material as digitized diaries, manuscripts, photographs, sound recordings, personal papers, reports and legislation. 

Arizona Index   Arizona Index
The Index which began in 1951 was maintained in card catalog form, the cards arranged by broad subject. Some entries in this card catalog index include items dated as late as 1990, the year all indexing efforts for this project ceased at the University of Arizona Library. The online edition presents exactly what was compiled for the published volumes and adds the citations that were completed to 1990 which were not included in the printed edition.
 
Arizona- Sonora Documents Online  Arizona-Sonora Documents Online

Selections from 19th and early 20th century archival collections relating to Sonora, Mexico, located at three Arizona repositories: the University of Arizona Library Special Collections; the Arizona Historical Society-Tucson; and the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records.The collections cover a broad range of topics, including ranching, mining, land grants, anti-Chinese movements, crime on the border, and governmental issues.

Arizona, Southwestern and Borderlands Photograph Collection   Arizona, Southwestern and Borderlands Photograph Collection
The  collection contains photographs related mainly to Arizona,  the Southwest, and Boderland  region. The collection documents Tucson history, exploratory expiditionsto the West in 1884-1885 and 1885-1886, and photos of Native American groups of the American Southwest and Mexico. 

Diary of Alexander Grayson Bowman   Diary of Alexander Grayson Bowman

Civil War diary of a Union pace counter for the California Volunteer Army,Company B, 5th Regiment Infantry.Brief diary entries provide a glimpse of military travel and camp conditions.

Raul H. Castro Digital Collection   Raul H. Castro Digital Collection
The collection contains photographs and documents regarding Raul H. Castro’s life and career. The  Raul H. Castro collection documents his political career including his early legal practice, judgeship, each of his three ambassadorships, campaigning for Jimmy Carter and his tenure as governor of Arizona.
 
Empire Ranch Collection   Empire Ranch Collection
The Empire Ranch Collection presents digital surrogates of various documents, photographs, and maps located in Special Collections at the University of Arizona Libraries which chronicle the early years of one of Southern Arizona's largest cattle ranches.
 
The Escárcega family library was built by, Gildardo G. H. Morales Díaz of Apetatitlán, Tlaxcala, México [b. 1899]. Mr. Morales Díaz was a self-taught bibliophile and was a founding member of the Instituto Panamericano de Geografía e Historia. Having survived a tragic loss as a young man during the Mexican Revolution, Mr. Morales Díaz dedicated his life to the study and understanding of Mexican History. With few possessions including books, the family moved to Puebla. He started collecting more books in the early 1920s, building the library over time by adding important manuscripts and broadsides. The Morales de Escárcega Collection includes over 2000 books, just under 80 broadsides and manuscripts, as well as some photographs. Included in this digital collection are the manuscripts and broadsides included in the collection.
 
Dr. Homer L. Shantz (1876-1958) was a leading American botanist and former president of the University of Arizona. Dr. Shantz was also a remarkable photographer. In collaboration with the University of Arizona Hebariumand the UA  Libraries 6,500 photos  and Dr. Shantz filed  diary pertaining to the Smithsonian African expedition of  1919-1920 were digitized. 
 
The Jack Sheaffer Photograph Digital Collection contains over 10,000 images that document the photographic history of southern Arizona during a time of explosive growth in the area, from 1955 - 1975. Jack Sheaffer photographed both major and minor events that made up the history of southern Arizona during the last half of the twentieth century. His subjects included in this collection, ran the gamut from politics and sports, to annual civic events like the Tucson Rodeo, and from celebrity visits and tragic accidents, to local beauty pageants.

Morris K. Udall Oral History Project   Morris K. Udall Oral History Project

Spoken recollections that illuminate the lives and careers of Congressman Morris K. Udall and the Udall family and provide an understanding of the major issues, events, and personalities of their times.

Morris K. Udall Papers/Central Arizona Project Digital Collection   Morris K. Udall Papers/Central Arizona Project Digital Collection
Selectons from the Morris K. Udall Papers (MS325) pertaining to the development of the Central Arizona Project.

Oury Family Papers   Oury Family Papers

Contains correspondence, a diary, photographs, deeds, articles and speeches from the Oury Family Papers.The Oury family was an Arizona pioneer family, prominent in territorial political and military affairs.

Stewart Udall Papers/Western Waters Digital Library   Stewart Udall Papers/Western Waters Digital Library

Selections from the Stewart Udall Papers pertaining to the Colorado River and the Mexican Water Treaty.

University of Arizona Photograph Collection   University of Arizona Photograph Collection
The University of Arizona Photogragh Digital Collection contains images that depict the history of  the University from its inception.