Special Collections And University Archives

James R. Sasser, BA’58, JD’61, was a three-term U.S. senator from Tennessee and ambassador to China. (Ann Rayner/Vanderbilt) James R. Sasser, BA’58, JD’61, a former three-term U.S. senator from Tennessee and ambassador to China, died Sept. 10 in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was a statesman who loved Tennessee… Read More

Embarking on a new research project often brings unexpected discoveries—some intriguing, some novel, but rarely a find of a lifetime. Such a remarkable discovery occurred when university archivist and associate director Kathy Smith stumbled upon a pile of plaster, hidden away for 60 years in a dim, cluttered closet of the Branscomb Quad basement. This plaster turned out to be the long-lost Crampton’s Plesiosaur Cast from the 1870s, missing for nearly six decades. Read More

What do a Commodore ID Card, a piece of the Bicentennial Oak, a baseball signed by two-time national championship-winning head baseball coach Tim Corbin, and a video of the 2019 Carmichael Tower implosions all have in common? They are among more than 150 items that future generations will discover in a Vanderbilt time capsule to be opened in the year 2174. Read More

Please Continue: Literary Correspondence as Conversation features notes and letters penned by acclaimed writers representing more than a century of English literature, from the mid-1800s to the 1980s. Highlights include correspondence from Mark Twain, Henry James, Arthur Conan Doyle, Zora Neale Hurston, C.S. Lewis, Flannery O’Connor, Langston Hughes, P.G. Wodehouse, Katherine Anne Porter and others. Read More

As classes get underway this fall, the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are here to support students in a variety of ways. Check out the following 10 tips to make the most of all the libraries have to offer. Read More

As classes and research get underway this fall, the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are here to support Vanderbilt faculty in a variety of ways. Check out the 10 tips below to make the most of all the libraries have to offer. Read More

A new partnership between the government of Québec and Vanderbilt University will bolster opportunities for academic and cultural exchange involving the Canadian province and the Nashville institution. The collaboration was announced June 18 at an event celebrating Québec’s deep ties to Middle Tennessee that also served as an early observance of la Fête nationale du Québec—Québec’s annual national day. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives has fully digitized the Rev. James M. Lawson Papers and made these materials available to the general public, giving students, scholars and historians a more complete picture of the distinguished activist’s life and legacy. The collection is available online through the JSTOR digital library of academic journals, books and primary sources.  Read More

A new article in EdTech Magazine and a case study by the Center for Digital Education highlight how the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries continue to innovate in the area of digital preservation. Both items detail efforts to scale up and make sustainable the Heard Libraries’ one-of-a-kind Vanderbilt Television News Archive, the world’s most extensive and complete archive of television broadcast news. Read More

For more than 75 years, Vanderbilt has been a pioneer in the study of the Americas, forging new paths to innovate, shape, and advance the field. Now, the Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies once again finds itself at the forefront, driving important changes in education, research and programming, both at the university and across the country. Read More

The complete archive of Vanderbilt University’s flagship publication has been fully digitized and is now available online, making more than a century of university history accessible to the Vanderbilt community and others around the globe. The digitization project, led by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries’ Special Collections and University Archives, includes publishing the complete run of Vanderbilt Magazine and its predecessor, Vanderbilt Alumnus, on the JSTOR digital library of academic journals, books and primary sources. Read More

This free exhibit is part of ongoing Sesquicentennial celebrations and features rare items from Heard Libraries' Special Collections and University Archives. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have acquired the personal collection of Dom Flemons, a Grammy Award-winning songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and cultural historian whose music and research have brought greater awareness to African Americans’ extensive contributions to roots music. Flemons also will be appearing at the Blair School and NMAAM later this month. Read More

The Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are marking the 50th anniversary of hip-hop in 2023 with the acquisition of eight prints by celebrated hip-hop illustrator and documentarian André LeRoy Davis. The prints engage critical themes in U.S. culture, from immigration and policing to identity and electoral politics. Read More

Ellen T. Armour, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology, will discuss her new book, Seeing and Believing: Religion, Digital Visual Culture, and Social Justice, at Vanderbilt University’s Special Collections and University Archives from 3 to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 28. The event is free and open to the public. Read More

Vanderbilt Law School professor Daniel Sharfstein will host a conversation with the National Trail of Tears Association’s Tory Wayne Poteete and the Oklahoma Historical Society’s Charles Tate on Thursday, Sept. 21, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Central Library Community Room. They will discuss research that contributed to Cherokee and Chickasaw Students at Vanderbilt, 1885–1899, an exhibit on display at Central Library through Sept. 29. Read More

At Vanderbilt’s Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries, the three-dimensional history of the university is collected and lovingly maintained by the staff of Special Collections and University Archives. Their mission is to “preserve the historical memory of the university”—memory that is found in the objects that, by their survival, attest to a timeline grounded in the space between West End Avenue and 21st Avenue South. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Special Collections and University Archives materials and operations will have a new home on campus at 1101 19th Avenue. The historic 1101 building will provide a large reading room and shelving for ready access to the university’s special collections. Read More

Tim Gollins, an international information specialist, has been named director of Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives, effective March 6. Gollins joins Vanderbilt from the National Records of Scotland, where he was head of preservation and information management. Read More

Vanderbilt Libraries has uploaded more than 48,000 historic photographs from the Vanderbilt University Photographic Archive to Vanderbilt’s media database in preparation of the university’s Sesquicentennial celebration in 2023. Current faculty, staff and students can access the historic photographs in the database after requesting initial access. Read More