LTEN 245: 18th and 19th Century Print Cultures: Special Collections

Encompassing UC San Diego's Mandeville Special Collections and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives, Special Collections & Archives houses a wide range of rare books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, artworks, recordings, and archives. These primary source materials support UCSD's instructional and research programs, and distinguish UCSD's library collections from all other research universities.

Special Collections focuses on building its collections in concert with UCSD’s academic programs to build comprehensive research collections around specific subjects. Areas of exceptional strength include:

• Early voyages of exploration and discovery to the Pacific prior to 1850
• Scientific endeavors in marine sciences, post-1850
• Spanish Civil War - the largest extant collection on the subject
• Post-1945 American poetry in the "alternative" tradition, including extensive collections of poets' manuscripts and correspondence
• History of San Diego, southern California, and Baja California
• Contemporary science and public policy, including the personal archives of some of the nation's most renowned scientists
• Culinary history of Mexico, Latin America, and the Pacific Rim
• Melanesian anthropology
• The UCSD Archives and Scripps Archives, which document the history of the campus

Digitization has made many of UCSD’s special collections more widely accessible. Search or browse the digital library collections here: http://library.ucsd.edu/dc

In the Library's catalog, use the Advanced Search to limit your search within the parameters of your assignment. For example, you can limit to only those items created prior to 1800, select a particlar language or languages, and limit to just those items in special collections by selecting that option in the LOCATION limit:

NOTE: You can also start with a basic keyword search, and select "Modify Seach" at the top of the results list to get to these same limit options:

Narrow to just manuscript items by using the Material Type Limit option "Archives & Manuscripts":

From the results list, click on the title to see more detail and to proceed with placing a request: