Manuscripts & Archives

Yale University has a long and distinguished history of collecting and preserving primary resources and making them available for teaching and research. Many of these materials were first collected by faculty and other members of the Yale community to support their own research activities and eventually placed in the library for long-term preservation and wider availability.

Manuscripts and Archives, a division of Sterling Memorial Library, has significant holdings in the area of American architecture and urbanism. Most of the collections originate from significant members of Yale faculty and students, architects, and planners who have been active in New Haven. Important holdings include those of lighting designer Richard Kelly (1910-1977); urban planners Maurice Rotival (1892-1980) and Edward J. Logue (1921-2000); and architects Henry Austin (1804-1891), James Gamble Rogers (1867-1947), Henry Killam Murphy (1877-1984), Eero Saarinen (1910-1961), King-Lui Wu (1918-2002), Warren Platner (1919-2006), Kevin Roche (1922-), Robert A. M. Stern (1939-), and Centerbrook Architects and Planners (established 1975). The University Archives also holds drawings, photographs, maps, and reports for Yale campus buildings. The collections are frequently used in the teaching of architectural history and theory. In 2005 Manuscripts and Archives hired Laura Tatum, an architectural archivist, to manage the growing collections.

A growing collection of images from the department's holdings is searchable in the Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Database (MADID)
 

Manuscripts and Archives also holds copies of Masters of Environmental Design theses from 1968 to the present, as well as the archives of the Yale School of Architecture.

Researchers are strongly encouraged to contact Manuscripts and Archives before their arrival to ensure they can access relevant materials in a timely manner. Architectural materials are stored off-site and must be brought to the reading room in advance of any research visit. Manuscripts and Archives' e-mail address is mssa.assist@yale.edu and the telephone number is (203) 432-1735.