Search Special Collections

Smith College Special Collections

Search archival and manuscript collections in Smith's Special Collections.

Search rare books and printed materials in Smith's Special Collections.

Search Tips | Research Guides | Digitized Content

Use the tools and links on this page to find materials in the College Archives, Mortimer Rare Book Collection, and Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History.

Search Tips

Special Collections Finding Aids - Search over 1,000 Smith College Special Collections archival and manuscript collections.

To search a specific collection, use the navigation bar to the right of the page (or at the bottom, depending on your screen size)
Click on the arrows to expand each section to see the names of folders or groups of folders under each series or topic
Read the Scope and Content notes as well as the Biographical/Historical note on the main page to understand the subjects covered in the collection
Read the Conditions Governing Access notes for information about possible collection restrictions.

Discover Advanced - This is the best place to find materials in the Mortimer Rare Book Collection.

Search subject, keyword, author, title, or date range.
In the results list, under "Library Location" in the left panel, select "Smith College Special Collections"

Research Guides

These guides provide a starting point for research with some of our most frequently used materials in Special Collections.

College Archives Research Resources

Oral Histories Special Collections Resources

Rare Books and Manuscripts in Smith College Special Collections

Gloria Steinem Special Collections Resources

Sylvia Plath Special Collections Resources

Ms. Magazine Special Collections Resources

Planned Parenthood Special Collections Resources

YWCA of the U.S.A.

Architecture and Landscape Design in Smith College Special Collections

The “Good Speech Movement” at Smith: A History of the Spoken English Department

Labor unions and worker advocacy at Smith College

Lesbian Pulp Fiction

LGBTQ+ Activism and Culture Resources in Smith College Special Collections

Mini Books in Special Collections

Reading and Writing Cursive in Special Collections

Reproductive Justice Resources in Smith College Special Collections

Women's Suffrage in the U.S. Special Collections Resources

World War I Special Collections Resources

World War II Special Collections Resources

Digitized Content

In the Finding Aids

Special Collections Finding Aids

To review digitized material available for each collection, click on the "View Digital Material" tab for each finding aid.

On the Website

Smith Digital Collections	Smith College Special Collections offers digital resources that can assist your research. These resources represent a sampling of the materials in the Sophia Smith Collection of Women’s History, College Archives, and Mortimer Rare Book Collection.
Compass: Digital Collections	Digital images from the collections at Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire colleges. Images from Smith College represent materials in the College Archives, Mortimer Rare Book Collection, and Sophia Smith Collection.
Online Exhibits	Exhibits on select topics represented in Special Collections. Includes images of collection materials and contextual information.

By Repository

College Archives Digital Collections - Images, online exhibitions, and documentation of significant events in the history of Smith College.

Digitized College Publications - Class Books, curriculum catalogs, Smith Alumnae Quarterly, and other publications produced by Smith College, past and present.

Archive-It Web Archiving - Archived web content for Smith College including the Libraries and Special Collections.

Mortimer Rare Book Collection Selections - A selection of digitized materials pages from various printed books and manuscripts (hosted on Artstor; Smith login required when off-campus).

Woolf Online - A collection of materials related to Virginia Woolf’s writing of “To the Lighthouse,” in the late 1920s. Included are holograph drafts, diary entries and letters, early reviews, selected essays and photographs of the Stephen family, Cornwall and Talland House, all of which inform the setting and characters of the novel.

Digital Scriptorium - The Mortimer Rare Book Collection contributions to the Digital Scriptorium, an educational consortium of American libraries with collections of pre-modern manuscripts or manuscripts made in the tradition of books before printing.

Sophia Smith Collection Digital Collections - Select digitized materials from the SSC and databases featuring digitized SSC material.