Printed Materials - Books, serials, maps, brochures, and other printed matter. Search the UW Library Catalog.

Archival Materials - Unique materials. Personal and family papers or organizational and corporate records - letters, diaries, writings, oral histories, scrapbooks, photos, recordings, and other unique matter. Search the Special Collections findings aids database

The Pacific Northwest Collection began in 1905 with a distributed leaflet by University Librarian Henry Canby Coffman requesting the donation of books, manuscripts, maps, pamphlets and other materials which illustrated the history and present condition of Washington State and the broader Pacific Northwest region.

The Pacific Northwest Collection includes the geographical area lying north of California and west of the Rocky mountains, including the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana, together with British Columbia, Alaska and the Yukon.

The Collection is substantially built on the generous material and monetary donations of people such as Edmond Meany, Manson Backus, Edward W. Allen, Robert Hitchman and many others.

Today, there are over 44,000 volumes cataloged in the library collection and over 44,000 linear feet of archival materials.

Special Collections is the UW Libraries' major resource for rare and archival materials covering a broad range of topics, formats, and periods. The Special Collections reading room, located on the lower level of Allen Library South, is open to the public on weekdays. 

Major collecting areas are overseen by curators/archivists.

Pacific Northwest Collections
University of Washington Archives
Book  Arts & Rare Books
Digital Collections
Historical Visual Materials
History of Science and Medicine