While Wesleyan's history has been preserved in many ways by many people or offices or off-campus sources, the University Archives acts as its centralized permanent repository. In addition to serving important legal, administrative, and historical purposes for the institution itself, Archives holdings offer research materials in many areas of educational, intellectual, and social history.
The Archives collects printed books, pamphlets, offprints, clippings, single manuscripts and large collections, student publications, annual reports, minutes, programs, ephemera, scrapbooks, photographs, diplomas, recordings, tapes, and occasional three-dimensional objects. These materials may relate to offices, departments, organizations, buildings, and individuals throughout the entire period of Wesleyan's existence. The Archives is also the repository for original copies of honors and graduate theses and dissertations.
Almost nothing in the University Archives is as yet represented in the online catalog. Much is not even in the card catalog, because of the quantity and types of materials and the varying ways they have been processed in the past. Persons wishing to explore historical topics related to Wesleyan or to find information about Wesleyan individuals should check first with Special Collections & Archives, which has a variety of means of access to the information in its care and is glad to assist with queries of any kind.
This guide lists materials, mostly printed, providing information about Wesleyan's history generally or by broad subject or by chronological period. These sources can also suggest approaches to the more detailed and specific archival holdings. Copies of all titles may be consulted in the Special Collections & Archives reading room. When additional copies are available, their call numbers appear at the end of the respective entry.