The Collection of China's spring 1989 democracy movement (六四前后中国民主运动资料汇集) documents the legacy of the democracy movement in China during 1989 as well as events leading up to the Tiananmen Square Incident and its aftermath, dating from 1988 to 1997, and with the bulk of the materials dating from 1989 to 1990. The collection holds the originals and the photocopies of over 300 ephemeral posters, leaflet/handbills, newsletters, open letters, and petitions created and distributed in 1989, including those issued by the Peking Workers Autonomous Association (北京工人自治联合会), student groups from various universities, the "Hunger Strike Newsletter" and other unofficial news bulletins, intellectuals' petitions to the government, cartoons, and poetry. The collection also comprises over 200 photographs depicting demonstration banners, big character posters, petitions and letters to the leaders. The collection also contains 15 eye-witness reports by Asians and Westerners, reports of human rights organizations, as well as books, miscellaneous news magazine articles and newspaper clippings. Related materials in the collection also include Spring 1989 issues of the banned intellectuals' journal "Eastern Record"; 147 slides of work shown at the Peking National Gallery's avant-garde exhibition; and a video tape of interviews with artists and performance art at the February 5, 1989 opening of that exhibition. Other items are several VHS, audiocassettes, floppy disks, fragments of wall posters, a T-shirt, and commemorative envelopes. A large fabric banner prepared by Chinese students at the University of Michigan which was sent to Peking where it was displayed at Tiananmen Square in May 1989 and later returned to the U.S., is also included in the collection.

Correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, prints, and printed material relating to Tompkins and his family. The cataloged correspondence includes two letters while he was Governor, one from John Peter Van Ness, New York Congressman, and Tompkin's letter to Rev. Peter I. Van Pelt on the creation of a college on Staten Island. The manuscripts consist of Tompkin's Columbia College valedictory address, biographical and genealogical items. There are 5 portraits of Tompkins and his wife as well as cabinet photographs of the Governor's mansion in Albany

The collection documents the career and personal life of Trinidadian-born Black British activist and journalist Darcus Howe (1943-2017). Howe was best known as a defendant in the 1971 Mangrove Nine trial, a founding member of the Race Today Collective and editor of its journal, Race Today, and a producer of television series and documentary films for the British television station Channel 4. There is also material from the later life of Howe's cousin, the prominent intellectual, postcolonial writer, and activist C. L. R. James (1901-1989).

The David C. Baldus Papers document the distinguished legal research career of David C. Baldus, which includes the most sophisticated challenges to capital punishment in the United States since the reinstatement of the Death Penalty in 1976. Included is material from the Georgia Charging & Sentencing Study, which was used as evidence in the McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) decision. Similar studies involving capital sentencing in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the U.S. Military are also detailed, as is Baldus's formal reports to the supreme courts of a number of other states. Also present is material documenting Baldus's long career as the Joseph B. Tye Professor of Law at the University of Iowa Law School. This includes teaching material, presentations, publications, and material documenting faculty service.

The David Von Drehle Papers contain information on the death penalty, primarily in Florida. Von Drehle compiled the materials while researching his 1995 book Among the Lowest of the Dead: Inside Death Row.

This collection contains records from the period in which Robert Morris served as Dean of the University College (1966-1970) and Dean of Undergraduate Studies (1970- roughly 1977).

The Department of History Records contains documents related to the Bachelor of Arts degree, a Doctor of Philosophy degree, a Masters of Arts Degree, and a Certificate of Advanced Study in Public History. Documents also relate to the changing thematic and geographic focus of various degree tracks.

Contains the records of the Division of Student Affairs, its subordinate offices, and its predecessor bodies, including the Office of the Dean of Students. Materials include: planning and policy documentation, admissions and financial aid statistics, correspondence, and meeting minutes.

Douglas Putnam Haskellan (1899-1979) was an American writer, architecture critic and magazine editor. This collection contains correspondence, memos, articles, speeches, lectures, transcripts, clippings, notes, printed matter, photographs, audiotapes, and memorabilia mainly relating to Douglas Haskell's editorship at Architectural Forum and his professional activities. The collection includes items dating from 1866 to 1979, with the majority of materials dating from the period of 1949 to 1964.

This collection contains the genealogical research of Elizabeth Strauss Plaut. Papers to be found here include extensive correspondence, family trees, and research notes on the genealogy of the Plaut and Strauss families.