Amherst has been collecting materials about the College and its history since 1851. These are housed in the department of Archives and Special Collections, together with rare books, literary and historical manuscripts, and other written and printed materials of unique value. This department is the designated repository for official College records, including those pertaining to academic programs and courses of instruction, academic departments and committees, and administrators and administrative offices. These individuals are represented in collections of personal papers, biographical files, and class records, in formats ranging from newspaper clippings to scrapbooks to richly detailed files of correspondence. Collections are accessed through 40 finding aids in the Archives and Special Collections Barnett Reading Room.
Some restrictions apply to the use of official administrative and institutional records.
Historical documentation includes extensive photographic collections throughout. Other resources include significant holdings in areas and by individuals only indirectly associated with the College. Examples include the papers of Louise Bogan, American poet, whose friend Rolfe Humphries was an Amherst faculty member and alumnus. The department is also the repository for the papers of American artist George W. Bellows, whose biographer, Charles H. Morgan, was for many years a faculty member of the Amherst College Fine Arts Department. Researchers are reminded that the collections described in this review represent a small segment of the total, and are offered principally to develop awareness of the range of holdings.