American University Archives & Special Collections is a unit within the American University Library. We maintain and provide access and research services to the university archives, special collections, and rare books collections. Our Digital Collections, found on this site, include selected materials that were digitized or that were donated to us as born-digital items. While we can't digitize everything due to copyright concerns, we provide free access to over 170 digital collections containing over 40,000 digital items including photographs, newspapers, manuscripts and personal papers, oral histories, maps, and more.

If you are interested in scheduling a research appointment with us to view any of these materials, please take note of the Digital Collection title, the title of the object, the local identifier, and the URL of the digital object. Then, contact the Archives & Special Collections and provide us with details about your request and the digital item(s) you are interested in viewing. We will answer any questions, and help you book an appointment in our reading room.

Our digitized collections are accessible for purposes of education and research. We have researched the contents of these digital collections to ascertain any possible legal rights embodied in the materials. In cases where copyright holders could not be reached or identified, the materials are provided here under an assertion of Fair Use (17 U.S.C. 107).

We welcome you to use our digital collections in the public domain or governed by Fair Use for education, research, teaching, and study without permission. Please cite collections appropriately including the collection name and credit the source as American University Archives and Special Collections. Please see our preferred citation and crediting policy for more.

Researchers who want to use copyrighted material outside of Fair Use are responsible for obtaining proper permissions. Archives and Special Collections can only grant permission for use of materials to which we own the rights; physical ownership does not imply copyright.

To acquire permission to use digital material owned by Archives & Special Collections but not in the public domain for purposes outside Fair Use, please contact Archives & Special Collections using our inquiry form below.

Please cite the resources appropriately. If you are unsure of the appropriate citation, please contact us for help.

When citing archival collections, we encourage researchers to include:
[Description or title of the item, dates], Name of the Collection with dates, Archives & Special Collections, American University, Washington, D.C. [Include URL of either the digital collection or digital item, or URL of the collection finding aid].

The digitized collections from AU Archives & Special Collections are accessible for purposes of education and research. We have researched the contents of these digital collections to ascertain any possible legal rights embodied in the materials. In cases where copyright holders could not be reached or identified, the materials are provided here under an assertion of Fair Use (17 U.S.C. 107). We are eager to hear from any copyright owners who are not properly identified so that the appropriate information may be provided in the future.

Upon request, we will remove the material from public view while we address a particular complaint. Requests for removal should be in writing and directed to our Archives and Special Collections office. You can reach us at our address or via email at archives@american.edu

An acknowledgement of a request for removal will be sent to the individual making the request. At the conclusion of the review into the request, notification of whether the material has been removed will be sent to the address or email on file.

If you identify photographs or other materials incorrectly labeled or described, or find something else that needs to be edited, please contact us and include the URL and description of your suggestion. You can help us improve our captions and descriptions by identifying people or places in photographs or by providing additional context.

American University Archives & Special Collections takes culturally sensitive and responsible collection stewardship with the utmost seriousness. Our collections serve as historical evidence of attitudes, beliefs, actions, and policies of individuals, organizations, and governments; and we make them available as objects of study. We collect materials that encompass a variety of time periods and viewpoints which can include outdated, biased, offensive, violent, or graphic terms and/or depictions. In order to preserve their authenticity, we do not edit or remove these terms or images from our collections. University Archives & Special Collections and American University Library do not endorse violence, racist, sexist, ableist, homophobic, or otherwise harmful views or language that demeans or threatens the personhood of any individuals or groups of people. In our work, Library staff try to balance the viewpoints conveyed in our research collections by providing additional context and contemporary terminologies in staff-supplied descriptions. If you encounter harmful language in staff-created descriptions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. 

The digital collections on this site are a sample of our collections at AU Archives & Special Collections. To find more information about our collections, visit the AU Archives' website to view our collections finding aids, inventories and descriptions. Or contact us with your research question via our form below.

For any questions, concerns, or comments, please get in touch with us using our contact form below and provide as much information as possible. Alternatively you can email us at archives@american.edu