Manuscripts Division

Mission Statement | Collecting Areas | Public Services | Research Tools| Additional Information

Mission Statement

The Manuscripts Division of the Department of Special Collections exists to arrange, describe, preserve, and make available documents of enduring historic value, both as intellectual items and as historical artifacts, to support the research needs of the undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and other scholars at Stanford University and beyond.

To this end, the Manuscripts Division is charged with the responsibility of protecting documents in its care from damage due to misuse of the collections, damage from climatic conditions, pests, or other agents of destruction, and from problems inherent in the physical documents themselves to ensure that these documents remain available for our constituents for as long as is possible.

Collecting Areas

Stanford University Library curators actively seek out collections to enhance our holdings, primarily in the following area: American History, American Literature, the history of the American West, Art and Architecture, British and Commonwealth History, British and Commonwealth Literary Studies, French and Italian Studies, Germanic Studies, Judaica and Hebraica, Latin American and Iberian Studies, Mexican American Studies, Religious Studies, Science and Technology, and Slavic Studies.

Public Services

Access to the manuscript materials is arranged through the Public Service Division of Special Collections and University Archives. The Public Service Division maintains web pages that explain How to Request Materials, as well as services and policies and the type of reference assistance that is available.


Research Tools

The primary research tools to aid researchers in locating useful materials include Socrates, the online catalog for Stanford University, and the electronic Finding Aids to the collections.

Additional Information

Additional information that may be of interest to our scholars and colleagues include a short history of the Manuscripts Division, as well as staff resources.