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Virginia Tech History Resources

This guide details resources intended to help those doing research on the history of Virginia Tech, including the use of Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries, and related resources.

About the Virginia Tech History Resource Guide and University History

Welcome to the Virginia Tech Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA) guide to Virginia Tech History Resources! This guide features tools and information to help you locate unpublished and published resources about the university from its founding in 1872 thru today. Materials in SCUA include the following:

  • University Archives, comprising the official records created by administrators, offices, and student groups at the university;
  • publications and printed material, such as books, journals, newsletters, pamphlets, and posters;
  • audiovisual items like oral histories, campus maps, architectural drawings, and historic photographs of the campus, employees, and students; and
  • papers of alumni, staff, and faculty about their experiences and research.

This guide will also highlight related resources located in SCUA, Newman Library, and other places.

We'll be adding to this guide as new resources arrive, but we also encourage you to contact us with questions as your research or interests develop.

Related Research Guides

Major Resource Search Locations

​Below are the main places to look for materials held by SCUA. The items on other pages are primarily pulled from these databases, which you can search on your own by keyword for departments, individuals, and subjects for more. 

Virginia Tech's Land Acknowledgement & Labor Recognition

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 version of the acknowledgement can be found on InclusiveVT's website.