Participating Libraries



Blackpool Central Library Local History Centre

Blackpool Central Library Local History Centre


Managed by Blackpool Council, the Local and Family History Centre holds a comprehensive collection of material for those interested in local or family history, including Blackpool electoral registers from 1930 onwards, historic Ordnance Survey maps of the Fylde area, local trade directories (1816 to 1969) and Fylde area Census records (1841 to 1901). It also contains comprehensive parish records from Lancashire parishes, local newspapers from 1845, local newspaper indexes and cuttings, historic local holiday guides for Blackpool, and the local historic photograph collection.


Brooklyn Historical Society

Brooklyn Historical Society


Founded in 1863, Brooklyn Historical Society is a nationally recognized urban history center dedicated to preserving and encouraging the study of Brooklyn's extraordinary 400-year history. Located in Brooklyn Heights and housed in a magnificent landmark building designed by George Post and opened in 1881, today's BHS is a cultural hub for civic dialogue, thoughtful engagement and community outreach.



California Historical Society

California Historical Society


California Historical Society, founded in 1871, is a nonprofit organization with a mission to inspire and empower people to make California's richly diverse past a meaningful part of their contemporary lives. The California Historical Society collection represents the environmental, economic, social, political, and cultural heritage of the entire state, including materials from outside California that contribute to a greater understanding of the state and its people. The collection comprises a diverse body of materials documenting the history of California, including 50,000 volumes of books and pamphlets; 4,000 manuscript collections; 500,000 photographs; printed ephemera, periodicals, posters, broadsides, maps and newspapers; the Kemble Collection on Western Printing and Publishing; 5,000 works of art, including paintings, drawings, and lithographs and artifacts and costumes.


The Camping and Caravanning Club
The Camping and Caravanning Club Archive

The Camping and Caravanning Club exists to help its members reap the maximum enjoyment and value-for-money from their camping. Formed at a camp site in Wantage in 1901 by Thomas Hiram Holding and others, membership numbers rose steadily and in 1906 the first club site was opened at Weybridge. In 1909 the club acquired its first famous president, Captain Robert Falcon-Scott, and in 1919 the presidency was awarded to Sir Robert Baden-Powell, Boer War hero and founder of the Boy Scouts. In 1951, when the club had close to 15,000 members, it was given royal patronage. In 1983 the organisation changed its name to the Camping and Caravanning Club and over the last 30 years it has seen the development of membership services, club sites, and environmental initiatives and now has over a third of a million members. The archive provides a comprehensive record of the activities of the Camping and Caravanning Club since its inception.


John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, Duke University
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History, Duke University

The Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History in the David M. Rubenstein Library acquires and preserves printed material and collections of textual and multimedia resources to make them available to researchers around the world. Through these collections and related programming, the Center promotes understanding of the social, cultural, and historical impact of advertising, marketing, and sales.



George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida

George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida


The Department of Special & Area Studies Collections encompasses collections of unique and special types of materials (e.g., rare books, archives, and manuscript collections) and interdisciplinary collections pertaining to geographical, national or cultural regions. The collections directly support a variety of academic disciplines and research programs.


J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans

J. Edgar & Louise S. Monroe Library, Loyola University New Orleans


Located on the third floor of the Monroe Library, Special Collections and Archives preserves materials related to the history of Louisiana and the South, the Society of Jesus, and Loyola University New Orleans.


Massachusetts Historical Society
Massachusetts Historical Society

Founded in 1791, the Massachusetts Historical Society is an invaluable resource for American history, life, and culture. Its extraordinary collections tell the story of America through millions of rare and unique documents, artifacts, and irreplaceable national treasures. As America's first historical society, the MHS strives to enhance the understanding of the nation’s past and its connection to the present, demonstrating that history is not just a series of events that happened to individuals long ago but is integral to the fabric of daily life.



Michigan State University Libraries

Michigan State University Libraries


Special Collections in the MSU Libraries is charged with housing and providing access to rare books and special research collections. Established in 1962, Special Collections today has over 500,000 printed works, extensive manuscript and archival collections and a collection of ephemera supporting research in popular culture, radicalism, comic art, and gender. Notable special collections include the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection, one of the largest of its kind in the world, and the Radicalism Collection, which features primary material representing a wide range of radical political, social, cultural, and economic viewpoints. Special Collections also houses important collections of rare books, including early veterinary medicine, historical food and cookbooks, works related to European criminology and modern American literature.



New Hampshire Historical Society

New Hampshire Historical Society


New Hampshire Historical Society collects, preserves, and interprets the materials of New Hampshire history in fulfillment of its mission "to educate a diverse public about the significance of New Hampshire’s past and its relationship to our lives today." The Society's collections form the basis for research by all who are interested in New Hampshire history. They are used by scholars, local historians, educators, museum curators, librarians, genealogists, collectors, the media, tourists, and the general public. The collections provide the substance for the Society's exhibitions, publications, and school and public programs, designed to create engaging and enjoyable learning experiences for a wide range of audiences.

 


The Newberry Library

The Newberry Library


The Newberry Library is an independent research library concentrating on the humanities with an active educational and cultural presence in Chicago. Free and open to the public, it houses an extensive non-circulating collection of rare books, maps, music, manuscripts, and other printed material. The Newberry offers exhibits based on its outstanding collections, musical and theatrical performances, lectures and discussions with today's leading humanists, seminars, and teacher programs. Serving the public as an independent research library since 1887, the Newberry hosts a collection focusing on Western Europe and the Americas and offers a wide array of programs. Its more than 1.5 million books, five million pages of manuscript, and 500,000 historic maps range from illuminated medieval works and rare cartographic treasures to rich genealogical resources and the papers of Midwest authors and companies.


The New York Academy of Medicine Library
The New York Academy of Medicine Library

The Academy is home to one of the most significant historical libraries in medicine and public health in the world, safeguarding the heritage of medicine to inform the future of health. The Library's collections contain many of the formative texts of medicine and allied fields from the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. It is equally renowned for its extensive journal collection comprising medical serials from around the world, and for its ephemeral materials that are now proving of immense historical value. The Library is dedicated to building bridges among an interdisciplinary community of scholars, educators, clinicians, and the general public, and fills a unique role in the cultural and scholarly landscape of New York City. Serving a diverse group of patrons – from historians and researchers to documentary filmmakers to medical students and elementary school students – the Academy collections serve to inform and inspire a variety of audiences from the academic to the public at large.


Thomas Cook Archives
Thomas Cook Archives

Thomas Cook possesses a unique collection of archive material covering all aspects of the company's history from the founder’s first excursion on 5 July 1841 to the present. This material is held in the Company Archives, which functions as a corporate ‘memory’, offering an information service to Thomas Cook's various departments and to interested members of the public, as well as providing research facilities for academics, journalists and picture researchers from all over the world.


The National Archives, UK

The National Archives, UK

The National Archives are one of the world’s most valuable resources for academic research. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government they are the guardian of millions of the UK's national documents, the earliest dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible. For the academic community and others engaged in scholarly research The National Archives offer opportunities for collaboration and partnership across a broad range of disciplines. They bring together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historical documents with leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.



University of Westminster Archive

University of Westminster Archive


Archive Services collects, preserves, and provides access to records created by staff and students of the University and its predecessors. The service acts as the central point of information about the University's history and welcomes enquiries from students, staff and the wider community. The service also oversees the University's current recordkeeping and assists departments in managing their records efficiently and in accordance with legislative requirements and good practice.