University of Arizona

Everyone is welcome to visit Special Collections without an appointment from 9 am - 5 pm, Mon - Fri. Note that beginning April 1st, our hours will be 9 am - 4 pm

News

We're open: Welcome back to Special Collections!

Aug 19, 2022

Welcome to the 2022-23 academic year! We missed you and invite you to visit Special Collections.

Through all the ups and downs of the past few years, we continued providing service whether you were near or far.

Welcome back! Supporting students, faculty, staff & research through summer 2022

Jan 20, 2022

For summer 2022, Special Collections will remain closed until further notice except by appointment. Appointment times are available to students, faculty, staff, and the public, Monday-Wednesday, between 10 am & 4 pm. Appointments are limited and requests must be made at least one week in advance. Please do not travel to the library without receiving confirmation of your appointment time and availability of your requested materials.

Honoring the 80th anniversary of the USS Arizona's sinking at Pearl Harbor

Dec 7, 2021

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. 

A one-of-a-kind exhibit dedicated to the USS Arizona battleship that was destroyed in a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy on December 7, 1941, is getting a new look. 

Special Collections archivist and the exhibit’s curator, Trent Purdy, wanted to re-organize the exhibit to provide more context to the historic materials for visitors. 

The Films of Andrew Ellicott Douglass: Astronomer, Archaeologist, and Father of Tree-Ring Dating (virtual panel discussion)

Sep 24, 2021

Dendrochronologist and founder of the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, Andrew Ellicott Douglass, was an early adopter of amateur moviemaking technology. 

From the 1920s through the 1950s, Douglass used 16mm and 35mm film to document significant breakthroughs in scientific practices and research as they happened. Recording his academic undertakings in astronomy, climate science, and especially the tree-ring record, he illuminated the chronology of human settlement in the southwestern United States. 

An ongoing oral history of COVID-19 in Tucson

May 11, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic is easily the most global story of the 21st century, yet it is also an intensely local story with striking differences across cities and regions. 

Preserving films from the 1930s takes time

Sep 25, 2020

This past spring, the University of Arizona Libraries Special Collections was awarded a prestigious Recordings at Risk grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR)

Assistant librarian and archivist Trent Purdy and archival assistant Amanda Howard, the principal investigators for the $39,175 grant project, are digitizing and preserving 90 motion picture films from the collection of dendrochronologist Andrew Ellicott Douglass.

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