Universal Access
Special Collections and University Archives is currently open Monday-Friday from 8am to 5pm.
Appointments are not required, but strongly encouraged (**see below)
Appointments can be made by visiting the SCUA Seat Reservation page (instructions are included on this page)
Virtual reference help remains available at specref@vt.edu or by phone at 540-231-6308
**By making an appointment, you will help us limit the number of researchers using our Reading Room at any one time for health and safety; guarantee you a seat at the requested time; and help us plan for your visit, for example, making sure the materials needed are on site and available.
Email: specref@vt.edu
Phone: 540-231-6308
Twitter: @VT_SCUA
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Virginia Tech acknowledges that we live and work on the Tutelo / Monacan People’s homeland, and we recognize their continued relationships with their lands and waterways. We further acknowledge that the Morrill Land-Grant College Act (1862) enabled the commonwealth of Virginia to finance and found Virginia Tech through the forced removal of Native Nations from their lands in western territories. We understand that honoring Native Peoples without explicit material commitments falls short of our institutional responsibilities. Through sustained, transparent, and meaningful engagement with the Tutelo / Monacan Peoples, and other Native Nations, we commit to changing the trajectory of Virginia Tech's history by increasing Indigenous student, staff, and faculty recruitment and retention, diversifying course offerings, and meeting the growing needs of all Virginia tribes and supporting their sovereignty.
Virginia Tech acknowledges that its Blacksburg campus sits partly on land that was previously the site of the Smithfield and Solitude Plantations, owned by members of the Preston family. Between the 1770s and the 1860s, the Prestons and other local White families that owned parcels of what became Virginia Tech also owned hundreds of enslaved people. We acknowledge that enslaved Black people generated wealth that financed the predecessor institution to Virginia Tech, the Preston and Olin Institute, and they also worked on construction of its building. Not until 1953, however, was the first Black student permitted to enroll. Through InclusiveVT, the institutional and individual commitment to Ut Prosim (that I may serve) in the spirit of community, diversity, and excellence, we commit to advancing a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive community.
Full and short versions of the acknowledgements can be found on InclusiveVT's website.
This guide was adapted with permission from a course LibGuide originally created by Kira Dietz.
This guide is designed to help students in EDHE 6064 locate resources in Special Collections and University Archives relating to the history of higher education generally, as well as about specific topics. There are also links to collections and resources available online and from other cultural heritage institutions. The guide is broken up into several sections.
Content Warnings: symbols of white supremacy, school shootings, depictions of sexual anatomy/sex acts, graphic or offensive language
Our collections contain historical content presented without alteration. This content may make some people uncomfortable. Please take care of yourself and let your instructor know if you need time to process or other support to navigate specific content. Since no one person knows the full extent of everything in our collections, it is impossible to note all potential triggers that may be encountered.
This section includes information about using tools (catalogs, finding aids, databases, etc) to locate primary and secondary sources by format. This includes books, manuscripts, oral histories, photographs and other photographic formats, digital collections, and art and artifacts.
This section contains lists of resources (primarily in Special Collections and University Archives) relating to broad topics within the history of higher education.
This section contains resources for developing search strategies and for locating primary and secondary sources at other cultural heritage institutions.
This section provides information about how to access general University Libraries services outside of Special Collections and University Archives.
Barracks No. 1, the first dormitory on campus (now Lane Hall). Harry Downing Temple, Jr. Papers (Ms1988-039)
