Convenience as well as the unified access to general and rare books collections encourage a student's fullest use of all resources. The value of our special collections will increase to the extent that our holdings are easily identifiable and accessible. The college library's special collections often contain many primary source materials. These resources embody the historical context that today's undergraduates seem most significantly to lack. Historiography, required of all history majors in their junior year at Wheaton, includes two class periods in the special collections department.
Students examine closely original letters from the nineteenth century with the archivist.
Then packets of documents and correspondence are assembled to illustrate the context of the letter writer's time and place. In a concluding session, the archivist, professors, and students discuss the problems and challenges of using primary source materials. Through assignment-based instruction sessions, classes are introduced to the variety of rare and special items in the library. These include oral histories, videorecordings and films, as well as print materials. Social history students rely on the library's special collections to expand their appreciation of historical context.