Distinctive Collections news

    On Sunday, April 25, millions of people will likely watch the Academy Awards just like they do every year. Due to the ongoing pandemic, though, the 93rd Oscars will look decidedly unlike any that have preceded it. With strict precautions in place, attendees will be limited to nominees, their g...

Artists’ books, simply put, are works of art in book form. Early forms of artists’ books are attributed to William Blake who famously illustrated his poetry in Songs of Innocence and Experience. In the early 20th century, Ambroise Vollard began to commission artists such as Pierre Bonnard, Picasso, ...

One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed into effect, America found itself at the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, fighting the legal, social,  and cultural ramifications of slavery and racial discrimination. Though this executive order declared an end to slavery, African ...

This blog began as a way for those of us who work with the rich archival resources at ASU Library to remain connected to our community during a time when many standard interactions (such as patrons using materials in a reading room) were not possible due to COVID-19 restrictions. So far on this blo...

Cover of lengthy specifications document for Anderson House, Scottsdale, Arizona, 1988, Alfred Newman Beadle Collection, MS MSS 30. By Harold Housley, Assistant Archivist (Architecture, Arts and Design) Architectural drawings are i...

Seonaid Valiant, Ph.D., MLIS, Curator for Latin American Studies, ASU Library. In September 2019 I traveled to Chengdu, China representing Arizona State University (ASU) Library in the Sichuan University Libraries Exchange program. ...

The Wurzburger Reading Room and the Design and the Arts Special Collections Reading Room welcome everyone back to campus for Fall ’20! After a sudden shift in Spring and a most strange summer break, all of us at the reading rooms want to let you know a few things about ou...

In her introduction post my colleague Renee James described the breadth and depth of the more than 500 collections that comprise the Greater Arizona Collection. The substantive congressional collections are of particular interest to me as a political papers project archivist. Greater Arizona include...

As with all collections found in archival repositories, architectural-related collections contain records that are retained and preserved because of their enduring importance and research value. Architectural-related collections often originate from a practicing architect or architectural firm and u...