The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) offers scholars and students a vibrant research and learning environment. We collect, preserve, and provide access to materials that document the history of our global society, including original manuscripts, photographs, architectural renderings, industrial design prototypes, graphic artworks, audio and moving image recordings, and much more. Today, the SCRC’s collections total approximately 150,000 printed items and over 30,000 linear feet of archival material in 2,400 separate collections, as well as the holdings of the renowned Belfer Audio Archive and the University Archives. Together, these collections offer unfiltered access to primary source material, the “authentic voice” of a writer or creator, from which scholars and students can develop their own views and create their own narratives.
Material relating to the Evans, Ellicott, and Spalding families of western New York, some of whom were Quakers. Members of these families were involved with the Holland Land Company, the Erie Canal, agriculture, and the temperance and anti-slavery movements. Correspondence (1804-1887) primarily of David E. Evans and his son, Ellicott Evans; legal and financial papers, including contracts, deeds, and wills; and 9 diary volumes (1832-1884) of Lyman A. Spalding of Lockport; photographs, and clippings.
Papers of the farmer, member of New York State Assembly, early settler in Onondaga County (1781-1870). Collection includes correspondence (1812-1846); diaries (1806-1870); legal papers (1804-1872); and genealogical material.
Papers of the members of the Brockway family (of Central New York State, Syracuse, N.Y, and Fulton County, N.Y.). The collection consists of correspondence (largely incoming, to various family members), account books, church records, diaries, financial and legal papers, and memorabilia.
Papers of the New York State lawyer, U.S. Congressman (1859-1863), abolitionist, born near Pompey, N.Y. Correspondence (1847-1891); genealogical material; legal and financial records (1814-1879); writings (1837-1884), including essays, speeches, and published letters; and memorabilia. Largely family correspondence with additional letters of Louis Agassiz, Samuel Bowles, Salmon P. Chase, F.J. Child, James Freeman Clarke, Roscoe Conkling, George W. Curtis, John A. Dahlgren, Richard H. Dana, H.L. Dawes, Daniel S. Dickinson, J.T. Fields, John M. Forbes, John C. Frémont, William Lloyd Garrison, George W. Geddes, George F. Hoar, John Jay, Thomas Starr King, Samuel J. May, Robert B. Minturn, Levi P. Morton, Charles Eliot Norton, Elizabeth P. Peabody, Wendell Phillips, William H. Seward, Gerrit Smith, Israel Washburn, R.S. Watson, Andrew D. White, and others.