Pitt’s Archives and Special Collections are home to some of the University’s rarest materials, giving students and researchers direct access to Pittsburgh’s history.
The A&SC department houses over 7 million print and electronic books, journals, databases, archival materials and special collections, including copies of The Black Panther Party newspaper and August Wilson’s handwritten notes on napkins. These collections are preserved and digitized by the A&SC team of librarians, archivists, student workers and researchers, giving anyone access to them for research.
Edward Galloway, the assistant University librarian for A&SC, is responsible for finding material to add to the University’s collection, which has been built since the 1960s.
“We look for distinctive, often one-of-a-kind, material that was created by an individual, organization or institution,” Galloway said. “What is held in an archive is unique. There are some exceptions to that, but it’s one of a kind. It doesn’t exist anywhere else.”
The majority of the University-wide collection is stored in the Thomas Blvd. Library facility, though students and researchers can request materials to read in Hillman Library’s reading and instruction rooms. Library patrons can also browse the third floor of Hillman to take a look at A&SC-curated displays. The Thomas Blvd. facility is where much of the archival work happens, according to Galloway.
“We just simply don’t have the room [in Hillman],” Galloway said. “We have thousands upon thousands of collections and items, so we have a facility [at Thomas Blvd.] where students and faculty researchers can visit.”
Miranda Zarin, a junior history and anthropology major and student worker at the Thomas Blvd. facility, has been working at A&SC since January. She organizes and digitizes files, making them available for research. Zarin, even as a student, didn’t know about A&SC’s materials before she worked there.
“A lot of people don’t know that it’s there, and I personally had no idea how much was really in [the collections],” Zarin said. “It documents a lot of Pittsburgh history, like the steelworkers — so many students have connections, like parents or grandparents, that were steelworkers.”
Galloway thinks it’s especially important for students to have access to archives to show that all these well-known projects -– books, poems, plays and music -– started off as drafts.
“You don’t always write the perfect draft right off the bat,” Galloway said. “There is a process of editing, drafting and having other people look at it, and it’s fascinating to see. There’s always a drafting process there, and I think the archives can give you some affirmation that it takes a while to hone your craft.”
The Hillman A&SC location is a space for classes to visit, too. Clare Withers, an Elizabeth Nesbitt Collection curator for A&SC, has worked closely with professors and their syllabi to select archival items that might relate to their classwork.
“[The students] get a sense of the actual thing that was out there and how it was presented in culture, which is a lot different than your instructor telling you what something means,” Withers said. “It’s students looking at it, and then bridging to what’s going on in their classes and what they’re reading. That’s what I love most about primary sources.”
A&SC has hosted over 100 class sessions so far this semester, according to Withers.
“I like when classes come in, because it introduces people to the archives,” Withers said. “We’ve found that instructors will ask their students to come back for individual work, which I think is just great.”
Anyone can access A&SC — not just Pitt students. According to Withers, anyone can request items to be brought to Hillman Library’s reading rooms. A&SC staff will assist with handling the material, since the items are often fragile due to old age.
The department offers an Archival Scholars Research Award for undergraduate students to conduct independent research using Pitt’s archives. Each year, around 12 students are selected and paid $1,000 to start their own projects — with guidance from librarians, archivists and a faculty mentor.
“The point is, the student has an interest in the material that we hold, and they want to do a project around that to learn more,” Galloway said. “[That] might be a paper, but it could be a blog or a website or an interactive media module. It could be anything. The point is that it’s outside the classroom, so it’s not tied to a class.”
Galloway said this “successful” opportunity gives students a chance to get paid for their research and earn credit towards their degrees.
“Time after time, students say something like, ‘This is the best experience I ever had,’ and ‘I learned more doing this than anything else,’” Galloway said. “Part of that is because it’s led by them, and you never know what you’re going to find. Some students are frustrated because they think they’re going to find this and they don’t, but they’re led down a path to something else, which is often more exciting or interesting to them.”
One of A&SC’s archival focuses is documenting the University’s history. The department houses records from student groups, administrative offices, The Pitt News and past yearbooks — all of which together form what Galloway calls “the memory of the University.”
“If you care about Pitt and your experiences here, and you want to learn what has happened at the University through all these years, we have those records,” Galloway said. “We showcase all of it through a fun and useful website called Documenting Pitt.”