University Archives & Historical Collections

tel 517.355.2330 / fax 517.353.9319 / email archives@msu.edu

	History		Class Presentations		Acquisitions

Classroom Outreach

The University Archives and Historical Collections of Michigan State University provide a variety of services for faculty and staff, from University records management to reference. To better serve the greater University community, the Archives offer the following services:

Class Tours

Small classes (less than 15 students) can receive an orientation to the Archives facility and its holdings, scheduled during class time, including a discussion of University history, major collections, and other primary source material.

In-Class Presentation on the Archives' facility and its holdings

For larger classes, an archivist visiting the classroom will bring materials relating to the Archives, including sample items, and will give a lecture similar to Class Tours talk.

Group Tour/Talk

Archivist will give an informational seminar similar to Class Tour or In-Class presentation. Intended for a group of graduate teaching assistants or department faculty/staff personnel who wish to incorporate primary source materials in the Archives into their course work.

All tours, orientations and class visit topics can be arranged to incorporate specific topics desired by the instructor as they relate to the Archives.

Collaborative Projects with Course Instructors

The Archives' staff is pleased to work with instructors to have their classes use Archives' materials in their course work. Past projects included using materials relating to University history to place Michigan State University in the context of the development of the American character. Students used several collections including the Land Grant Research Collection, the Vietnam War collections, Media Communications Collection, alumni and faculty papers.

Faculty working collaboratively with the University Archives and Historical Collections enables the Archives' staff to act as guides for the student researchers, introducing many for the first time to primary source research. Communicating with the instructors enables the Archives' staff to prepare materials ahead of time, understand the process behind the assignments and enhance the research work of the students.

A sampling of what can be found at the University Archives and Historical Collections of Michigan State University include:

• Pictorial holdings of more than 50,000 prints, thousands of transparencies, tintypes, ambrotypes, lantern slides, daguerreotypes, picture postcards, photographic albums, and over a half-million negatives.
• Civil War letters and diaries
• The Land Grant Research Collection - the microfilm copies of papers belonging to persons in Congress at the time of the passage of the Morrill Act.
• Lumbering Industry Records
• R.E.O. Motor Car Collection
• Ransom E. Olds Personal Papers
• Michigan agriculture collections
• Vietnam War collections
• Oral Histories
• University Records: Board of Trustees' minutes; Presidents' papers; faculty papers; alumni papers; student organization records; athletic teams

For more information on the Archives' holdings and outreach services; or, to discuss a potential project or collaboration with the Archives, please contact Portia Vescio at vescio@msu.edu or 355-2330.