Research Guides: Traditionally Marginalized Communities: Special Collections Resources: Home

About this Guide

This site includes Special Collections resources related to the following topics:

Appalachian History
Asian/Asian-American History
Black/African American History
Disability History
Indigenous, Native American, and American Indian History
Latinx History
LGBTQ+ History
History of Religious Diversity
Women's History

You'll also find links to other academic and research organizations with significant collections about these topics.

If you have questions about the collections, locating resources, need help with a project, or just want to see some interesting or unique items, feel free to contact me.

What we collect about traditionally marginalized communities

We actively collect new material about these topics:

American Civil War
History of Food and Drink
History of Women and the Built Environment
Local/Regional History and the Appalachian South
Science and Technology History
University History

In addition, we have inactive collecting areas including:

British and American Literature
Heraldry and Military History

You might notice that the topics covered by this guide are mostly not in this list of collecting areas. The only one that appears explicitly is Women's History appearing in the form "History of Women and the Built Environment." This is because we don't have a subject focus on the history of traditionally marginalized communities. There are other archives that have that focus and do an excellent job. In order for us to collect material about one of these traditionally marginalized communities, it needs to fit within one of the topics listed above.

Here are some examples of materials we collect and why they are in our collections.

Gary Ann Giovanni Culinary Papers, 1997-2004 (Ms2006-011)

Papers of Gary Ann Giovanni, a chef, caterer and cooking teacher active in Blacksburg, Virginia.
This collection relates to the topics of Black History and Women's History.
It fits within our collecting areas focused on the History of Food and Drink and Local/Regional History and the Appalachian South.

RFD. HQ75 .R43 Spec Large.

This magazine has included many tag lines over the years including "A country journal for gay men everywhere" and "A reader created gay quarterly celebrating queer diversity".
This magazine relates to the topic of LGBTQ+ History.
It fits within our collecting area focused on Local/Regional History and the Appalachian South.

Locating Materials in Special Collections

Manuscript Collections

We have about 900 manuscript collections related to one or more of the traditionally marginalized communities covered in this guide. You can view the finding aids for these collections through Virginia Heritage, a state-wide search tool. To limit your search to Virginia Tech materials, select "Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University" from the Repository drop-down. Then, enter your keywords and click search.

Books

All of our books relating to these communities can be found using the library's catalog. Some of these books are in Special Collections, but many are also in the circulating collection. If you are looking generally for materials about these populations, you can use a variety of search terms such as "African American", "LGBTQ", or "Latin American" in the Keyword form. Suggested search terms for each group are included on the appropriate page of this guide.

Online

Special Collections has some material in our online collections related to these communities. You can find these items on Special Collections Online. The site includes a search box in the upper right corner where you can search using keywords to locate materials related to a specific community or communities.