Special Projects

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
• Diaries, notebooks and appointment calendars
• Classroom material: Lecture notes, syllabi, course outlines, reading lists, examinations, student papers and evaluations
• 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.

Contact the Archives at specialcollections@northwestern.edu for a consultation regarding department and office records.

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.