Current initiatives and special collecting projects for University Archives are detailed below. Read more to find how you support the preservation of Northwestern history by contributing materials on these topics to the Archives.
Make Your Mark: Archiving Undergraduate Student Life
In 2019, Northwestern University Archives launched a project to help Northwestern undergraduate Residential Colleges and student organizations like yours archive their records as part of their everyday workflow and ultimately deposit them with us for long-term preservation and access. By participating in this project, you:
Ensure the authentic student voice is captured for all time
Preserve your group's legacy
Guarantee your successors can continue to carry the torch
Our end goal is to grow and diversify Northwestern University Archives' holdings to more accurately reflect the richness of undergraduate student life.
Documenting the Impact of COVID-19 at Northwestern
Because Northwestern University Archives strives to document the history of our institution, we have an obligation to document the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic and how it impacts members of the Northwestern community.
Help us capture this experience as it continues to unfold. We are seeking volunteers who kept a journal while they "sheltered in place.” We’re interested in your revised daily routines, the effect of these changes on your academic and work lives, and the impact of practicing “social distancing.”
Faculty Papers, University Records, Student and Alumni Materials
Northwestern University Archives tell the story of Northwestern, Evanston and alumni communities by collecting papers, records, memorabilia, scrapbooks, correspondence and other pieces of Northwestern-affiliated history. The Archives obtain and add to their holdings by receiving donations from faculty, student organizations, alumni and other campus offices.
See below for some examples of what the Archives collects. Contact Matthew Richardson, University Archivist, to discuss donation of personal and professional materials and material pickup or transfer.
Some Northwestern University publications have been digitized and made available as part of the University Archives. See alumni news, Daily Northwestern, yearbook and more archives.
University Archives welcomes materials that contribute to documenting faculty careers. These include the following types of items, but this list is by no mean definitive or exhaustive.
Biographical material: Resumes, vitae, bibliographies, biographical and autobiographical sketches, chronologies, genealogies, newspapers clippings, memoirs and financial records
Official correspondence: Outgoing (copies and/or drafts) and incoming letters and memoranda generated in the course of conducting university business
Professional correspondence: Outgoing and incoming letters relating to all facets of one's academic career, including correspondence with colleagues, publishers, professional organizations and students
Personal correspondence: Letters to and from friends, relatives and business associates
Research files: Outlines, research designs, raw data, notes, analyses and reports of findings
Departmental and committee records: Agenda, minutes, reports, correspondence and related material
Drafts and manuscripts of articles, books, reviews and speeches
Published articles and monographs
Audiovisual material: Tapes of lectures, speeches, discussions, interviews; videotapes and motion pictures
Photographs: Prints, negatives and slides
Memorabilia
University Archives is the official repository for all University records of administrative or historical value.
University records are materials created, received, or accumulated by a unit or employee of Northwestern University in the conduct of University business. These could be paper-based records or records created, transmitted or stored electronically.
These records include:
Files maintained by central administrative offices, schools and colleges, centers, departments, committees, and all other units of the University
Correspondence, memoranda, minutes, working papers, audio and video recordings, photographs and publications (The University Archives will strictly enforce all restrictions on access to confidential records.)
Books, newsletters, annual reports, magazines, catalogs, brochures, notices, posters, announcements, and flyers published by departments and programs.
Departments and units can also donate new publications and records. University Archives encourages departments to:
Add University Archives to your mailing and distribution lists. The University Archives would like one copy of every publication generated by your office, whether produced in paper or digital/electronic format.
Send University Archives a copy of each faculty publication, including off-prints of articles.
The University Archives accepts materials from students, student groups and NU alumni. These materials shed light on student life and on the academic experience at NU, and they help us complete our holdings of student- and University-produced publications.
Typical items welcomed by the University Archives include:
Records of student organizations: Meeting minutes, founding documents, reports, publications, flyers and photographs
Publications: Newsletters, programs, flyers and yearbooks
Artifacts: buttons and memorabilia
Materials that describe or document your personal experience at Northwestern: Scrapbooks, diaries, photographs, audiovisuals and correspondence with faculty, administrators, fellow students and family
Donations of these materials are considered gifts to the University Archives. Donors are asked to sign an agreement which formally signifies that the materials become the actual property of the University Archives. The Archives only accepts materials as permanent gifts and cannot take them as loans or on a temporary basis.
Make Your Mark: