Collections Policy / University Archives / Warren E. Burger Collection / Rare Books / Manuscripts
Collections Policy
Special Collections has four distinct areas of collecting and they are the University Archives, the Rare Books Collections, the Manuscripts Collections, and the Warren E. Burger Collections. The areas of interest in collecting are explained below. The Earl Gregg Swem Library, including its Special Collections, acquires, preserves and makes available to researchers, materials in many different formats. For examples of the materials we collect...click here???
University Archives
The University Archives collects documentation of the history of the College of William and Mary and her faulty, staff, and students. This documentation includes the official records of the various departments of the university as well as the Board of Visitors. It also includes faculty papers, student organization records, college publications both official and unofficial, records of student life, records of athletics both intercollegiate and intracollegiate, and memoirs, scrapbooks, or diaries of students and faculty or staff concerning their lives at the College of William and Mary.
The Warren E. Burger Collections
The Warren E. Burger Collection is primarily composed of his own collections that document his life from childhood until death. However some additional materials from other sources have been and will continue to be acquired if they assist in forming a more complete picture of the man and his world.
Rare Books Collections
The Rare Books Collections has several strengths first of which is American History from 1607 through the Civil War. The College's Ph.D. program in History and the collaborative work of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture mandate that we continue to build our collections of American History imprints.In particular we collect travel accounts of this country by both foreigners and Americans as well as travel accounts by Americans abroad.
Virginia rare books which emphasize the history of the state rather than literary value are desirable. They may range in date from 1607 to the present but they should emphasize local and state history and complement the manuscripts collections when possible.
We are also building collections in other areas of interest which include books with fore-edge paintings, books on dogs that will add to the Chapin-Horowitz Collection of Cynology, additions to the Nicholson Library which is our collection of books held in the original Library at the Wren Building which was lost in the fire of 1705, and finally books of the era of William and Mary and Sir Christopher Wren.
We are also interested in acquiring the complete libraries of early Virginians, particularly if the persons are connected to the College as alumni or faculty.
Manuscripts Collections
Virginia historic manuscripts, as opposed to literary manuscripts, are avidly sought. These may include any papers relating to the development of the colony, the commonwealth, and its people. These are often family papers, both of well known Virginians and the unknown. Papers having to do with the history of the Tidewater area, the Piedmont, the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge are welcome.
Personal papers of the alumni of the College of William and Mary, particularly those of people distinguished in their various fields, are of interest to us. Papers having to do with their life or work at the College will be deposited with the University Archives collections.
Papers of the Faculty of the College of William and Mary from the eighteenth century to the present are welcome including both personal and professional papers. Based on the content of the papers they will either be housed with the manuscript collections or the University Archives.
The Williamsburg Historic Records Association, founded by a concerned group of citizens in the early 1980's here in Williamsburg, collects materials that document the history of the Williamsburg area, including James City County, from the nineteenth through the twenty first Centuries.