Through our digital collections, Vassar College Libraries aim to provide access to high-quality digital content generated by the Libraries for research and study, as open as possible; support the teaching, learning, and research needs of the College; preserve at-risk or fragile physical collections through digitization, or at-risk born-digital collections through reformatting; expose hidden, less-used physical collections through access to digital surrogates; and foster experimental, cutting-edge, and innovative projects through technology. Learn More
As the Internet drifts away from being a novel technology, people have increasingly become fascinated by the sometimes-garish, comparatively rudimentary aesthetics of the early web. Using Walter Benjamin's reflections on the Parisian arcades as a framework, I propose that this...
The Vassar College Digital Newspaper Archives provides access to a wide range of newspapers and magazines that were published by Vassar College students from 1872-present.
Writer, journalist, cultural historian and bibliophile Nicholas A. Basbanes talks about his book On Paper: The Everything of Its Two Thousand Year History (Knopf), winner of the Amercian Library Association's Best Book of the Year award for 2013. "A consideration of all things paper—its invention
Architectural historian Nicholas Adams, Mary Conover Mellon Professor of Art at Vassar College, talks about the exhibition he conceived and helped to curate at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library entitled Building Buffalo: Buildings from Books, Books from Buildings: Books on Architecture and
"Nicholas Adams discusses his biography of the 20th century architect whose work defined the built environment of corporate modernism: Gordon Bunshaft and SOM: Building Corporate Modernism (Yale University Press 2019). \nGordon Bunshaft's (1909–1990) landmark 1952 design for Lever House reshaped the
Architectural historian and Mary Conover Mellon Professor of Art Nicholas Adams talks about the exhibition now on view in the Vassar College Library, Art Library, and Frances Lehman Loeb Center entitled: The Architect's Library: Notable Books on Architectural Themes in the Vassar College Library.
Mary Conover Mellon Professor of Art Nicholas Adams discusses his new book: Gunnar Asplund's Gothenburg: The Transformation of Public Architecture in Interwar Europe (Penn State, 2014). "This brilliant book offers a unique insight into one of the most cherished models of modern monumentality: the
Here you will find digitized archival collections, oral histories, and more. We are continually expanding the collections and improving access. You may find additional digital resources that reside outside the digital library here, and a selection of Online Exhibitions here.
Collections Overview
The Archives & Special Collections Library is part of the Vassar College Libraries system. It holds the rare book, manuscript, and archival collections of the college. It collects, preserves, and makes available rare and unique collections, and also engages in teaching and outreach activities. This collection of finding aids describe items in both the Virginia B. Smith Memorial Manuscript Collection and the College Archives.
The Vassar College herbarium holds over 8,000 specimens of vascular plants, bryophytes, and algae. Holdings are primarily from northeastern North America, and include collections made by several notable 19th century botanists. To learn more about this project visit the website here.
Vassar College's institutional repository reflects the research and scholarly output of the Vassar College community. It provides access to senior theses, peer reviewed open access articles, and projects from a wide range of disciplines.
