Penfield Library Archives and Special Collections Department is at the heart of teaching and learning at SUNY Oswego. The College Archives was established to preserve, maintain and foster an appreciation of the history and enduring value of SUNY Oswego. The Archives is comprised of historical records and documents of administrators, Departments, faculty, staff and students. Special Collections' local history collection includes material that focuses on the historical, political and cultural heritage of Oswego County or the surrounding Central New York region.
World War II Memorial Committee's surveys on the service of students, lists of servicemen, letters from servicemen, letters from family members, and photographs. Campus Concept Committee Minutes. Planning for Campus re-construction from 1998-
The Wood family papers consist mainly of the legal and financial records of Ebenezer, Ephraim, and Amos W. Wood or Woodville, New York. Included are legal summonses, deeds, bonds, affadavits, land survey materials, accounts, and school records. Among the papers are Amos E. Wood's will and property records deeding his land to his six children; a letter by four different correspondence to Amos Wood while he was on a journey to Ohio in 1836; an 1818 contract for the construction of a schoolhouse, giving the location and dimensions and the amount paid to the carpenter, and a printed proclamation from President Van Buren not to participate in hostilities arising in Canada [1838].
The collection consists of minutes of meetings and records of attendance from 1964 to 1972 of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in the Oswego County, NY area. It also contains honor certificates, notes, cards and some correspondence from 1941 to 1971.
The papers contain correspondence, business transactions, local documents and miscellaneous papers from both William and John Gifford. Documents of importance include, John Gifford’s letter describing the Revolutionary War. Also of interest are records of slave purchases in New York, and a petition for exchange of prisoners after the Battle of Monmouth [June 1778].
This collection consists of five independently written histories of the West Baptist Church of Oswego, New York. It includes the Church's early history, the seventy-fifth anniversary, the one hundredth anniversary, and the one hundredth anniversary of laying the cornerstone of the present church structure.
Professional collection of Dr. Virginia Radley, the eighth president of SUNY Oswego. Dr. Radley, the first woman president of a state-operated campus in the SUNY system, led the way to bolstering Oswego’s strong commitment to academic quality. She shepherded the establishment of the college’s Honors Program, Quest day of scholarly and creative activity and other endeavors that continue to provide depth and diversity to the Oswego experience.
A 21-page scrapbook was created by Violet King Sherman. A decorative scrapbook cover has embossed colorful images of birds and flowers. The scrapbook contains 160 postcards, calling cards, advertising cards and artistic images.
The Van Keuren Papers consist of 2 linear feet of notes, reports, correspondence, unpublished manuscripts, clippings, research articles, pamphlets and booklets; 1 linear foot of oral history tapes; and 8 linear feet of artifacts, mostly tourist type dolls, but also some more ceremonial masks and rattles.