Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
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Name	Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
Established	1930s (collections origin)
Location	Charlottesville, Virginia
Affiliation	University of Virginia
Director	(see Administration)
Website	(omitted)

Contents

Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library

The Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library is the rare books and manuscripts repository at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. It houses primary-source materials documenting figures such as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Woodrow Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe, and collections tied to institutions like the Rotunda (University of Virginia), Monticello, and the Library of Congress. The library supports research across the humanities and social sciences, facilitating work on subjects from the American Revolution and the Civil War to the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement.

History

The library's origins trace to early manuscript accumulations associated with Thomas Jefferson and the founding of the University of Virginia by Jefferson and contemporaries including James Madison and James Monroe. Over time the repository absorbed collections related to figures such as Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, John Marshall, Patrick Henry, and George Washington. Expansion in the twentieth century connected the library to scholars like Woodrow Wilson, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Henry Adams. Major donations and purchases have linked holdings to estates and institutions including Monticello, the Montpelier (James Madison's home), the Smithsonian Institution, Library of Congress, and private collectors associated with Alger Hiss, Aaron Burr, and John F. Kennedy. Renovations and naming benefactions in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries reflect ties to donors and alumni such as Albert Small and Shirley Small, while governance intersects with University of Virginia School of Law, University of Virginia Library, and regional archives serving Albemarle County, Virginia.

The library's collections span manuscripts, rare books, maps, photographs, architectural drawings, and recorded sound. Prominent individual collections include papers of Thomas Jefferson, correspondence of James Madison, legal documents of John Marshall, literary manuscripts of Edgar Allan Poe, drafts from T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes, and political papers from Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Lyndon B. Johnson. The map and atlas holdings encompass works connected to Lewis and Clark Expedition, James Cook, Ferdinand Magellan, and Merchants of Venice. Visual materials document figures and movements such as Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and the Civil Rights Movement leaders including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malcolm X. Special collections also include material culture linked to Monticello, Montpelier (James Madison's home), and architectural archives for Thomas Jefferson's design, the University of Virginia Rotunda, and designers like Benjamin Latrobe and Thomas U. Walter.

The library provides reference services for faculty and students from divisions such as the School of Architecture (University of Virginia), the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, the Department of History (University of Virginia), and the Carter G. Woodson Institute. It supports digitization initiatives partnering with entities like the Digital Public Library of America, HathiTrust, and the National Digital Newspaper Program. Public programming includes lectures and symposia featuring scholars of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert E. Lee, and Abraham Lincoln, as well as exhibitions coordinated with museums such as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Monticello Association. Educational outreach serves K–12 educators and institutions like the Virginia Department of Education through workshops on paleography, conservation, and archival practice, often collaborating with the National Archives and Records Administration and regional historical societies.

Located on the University of Virginia campus near the Alderman Library, the facility includes climate-controlled stacks, conservation labs, and public reading rooms. Researchers access materials by appointment and adhere to handling policies aligned with standards from the Society of American Archivists, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section (RBMS), and the American Institute for Conservation. The conservation lab works with donors and organizations such as the Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and regional museums to stabilize items from collections related to Monticello, Montpelier (James Madison's home), and private estates. The library's digital reading room facilitates remote access to digitized holdings while inter-institutional loan and access agreements connect it to networks including the Association of Research Libraries and the Digital Commonwealth.

Noteworthy holdings include manuscripts and letters by Thomas Jefferson, a near-complete run of early American imprints, transcriptions of correspondence involving James Madison and John Marshall, literary papers from Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Emily Dickinson, as well as political archives for Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard Nixon. Special exhibits have showcased items relating to the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, Reconstruction-era documents tied to Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth, and twentieth-century movements represented by materials from Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, W. E. B. Du Bois, and James Baldwin. The library's map collection has supported exhibitions on exploration by Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, Vasco da Gama, and James Cook, while literary displays have featured artifacts associated with Mark Twain, Herman Melville, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and Leo Tolstoy.

Administration is overseen through the University of Virginia Library system, with governance involving university leadership such as the Board of Visitors (University of Virginia), the University President (University of Virginia), and academic units including the College of Arts & Sciences (University of Virginia). Funding derives from university allocations, endowments established by donors like Albert Small, grants from agencies such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, support from private foundations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and partnerships with cultural institutions like the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. Collaborative research initiatives engage centers such as the Carter G. Woodson Institute, the Kluge Center, and regional historical societies.

Category:University of Virginia libraries