Archives and Special Collections

Spotlight on Research: Guest author Ann Ngoc Tran was awarded the Grant-in-Aid Award at the Immigration History Research Center Archives (IHRCA). She visited Andersen...

It started with “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” the first book Davu Seru read cover-to-cover, followed soon after with Richard Wright’s “Native Son.” Seru had never read books about people like him and his family before. Now he is the new curator for The Archie Givens, Sr. Collection of African American Literature and Life, where he will preserve and advance Black culture. 

Jean-Nickolaus Tretter wasn't just a collector and part-time hoarder. When other LGBTQ people couldn't speak out, he helped them find the words. Tretter, a native of Little Falls, Minnesota, dedicated his life to preserving LGBTQ history, from a charred book that survived the Third Reich, to full packets of rainbow Goldfish Crackers. Following his passing last December at 76, Tretter left behind over 40,000 items in the archives, making it one of the largest GLBT history collections in the country.

After two years of construction, the Ford W. and Amy Bell Room has a new home in the Elmer L. Andersen Library, and it’s magnifying the history of underrepresented peoples.

Soon, people will gather for the 51st Annual Twin Cities Pride Festival from June 23-25. Though Pride is an opportunity to celebrate present day strides and the hope for a more equitable future, it’s also a chance to reflect on the long history of the local LGBTQ+ community. Aiden Bettine, curator of the University Libraries’ Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, is available to provide expert commentary on the history of Twin Cities Pride.

Anne Good, the Assistant Curator at the James Ford Bell Library, has unveiled her first exhibit since joining the University of Minnesota Libraries in 2020. “Connecting Threads” showcases the tactile culture of the premodern world — its textiles, fibers, and fashion, its economy and trade markets — and asks what our clothes say about the modern era. 

The Tretter Transgender Oral History Project at the University of Minnesota has a new oral historian who’s bringing community organizing to the forefront of its mission to collect and preserve the stories of trans people across the city and state.  

As a writer and researcher, Palmer has long been a member of the Friends of the University of Minnesota Libraries, so he could have access and borrowing privileges to the University collections. He has used these materials in numerous writing projects, both fiction and non-fiction. “Because I have enriched myself intellectually by what the University [of Minnesota] has provided ... I feel that in the end I owe back the product of that enrichment.”

Perhaps you, you and your parents, you and your children, or you and your siblings have read “Millions of Cats,” out loud, to each other, or solo. This classic children’s book was first published in 1928 and, since then, never, ever has gone out of print. vAnd the story of the creator of “Millions of Cats” begins in Minnesota. Many works created by Wanda Gág are held in the Kerlan Collection of Children’s Literature, one of the special collections at the University of Minnesota Libraries.

Entering Darren Terpstra’s office in Andersen Library feels like going backstage — but with Greek columns, a Chinese dragon head, and midcentury lamps, one is not sure which play will be performed.

As a feminist sociologist, I am fascinated by the notion of work — any format of exertion that sustains society and humanity, lives, and livelihoods.

The Givens Collection is for everyone: Every child, every person, especially anyone who has been shoved to the back of the bus or to the margins of society.

Some topics in public health never go away, infectious disease and barriers to access to health care among them. In the recently digitized “A Public Health Journal” TV program (APHJ), dating from 1985-2004, and available online via UMedia, students, scholars, public health officials, and the members of the community can explore some of these evergreen issues.

Fans new and old will get the chance to meet Sherlock Holmes, learn how he follows the clues, and take part in their own investigations, at the very interactive “Sherlock Holmes: The Exhibition,” hosted at the Minnesota History Center in St. Paul starting Oct. 20. Artifacts, manuscripts, and other clues to the great detective and his creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — more than 100 of them from the U of M Libraries’ extensive Holmes-related collections — will be available for scrutiny. 

By Sandra Ayivor Spotlight on Research: Guest author Sandra Ayivor was awarded the Immigration History Research Center Archives (IHRCA) Grant-in-Aid Award this year, and she...

Labor Day became an official federal holiday in 1894 — so, by now, we Americans should have the celebration of America’s workers down! At the University of Minnesota Libraries, we have a multitude of images and newspaper accounts related to Labor Day in our Archives and Special Collections. Check out this sampling.