Welcome. The Oregon State University Libraries Special Collections and Archives Research Center, located on the 5th floor of The Valley Library, is home to the university’s unique collections of manuscripts, archives, photographs, and books.
We collect in five main areas: the History of OSU, the History of Science, Natural Resources, Multiculturalism in Oregon and Hops and Brewing History. We also administer the university's Records Management Program, are home to a robust Oral History Program, and have numerous Rare Books collections.
Finally, through our Digital Production Unit, we pursue a great many initiatives meant to improve access to and preservation of manuscripts, photographs, moving images and audio materials under our care.
We acknowledge that materials in SCARC collections and the language that describes them may be harmful. We are actively working to address our descriptive practices; for more information please see our SCARC Anti-Racist Actions Statement.
For help getting started with your research, please see our Reference page, and for more on what we do, please see our Mission Statement.
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Featured Projects
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Women's Words, Women's Work An online exhibit that explores the social and cultural expectations that have framed women's experiences on the Oregon State campus over 150 years. |
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Oregon State University Sesquicentennial Oral History Project The largest oral history project ever conducted at OSU, this web portal contains over 400 hours of interviews with a wide array of alumni, faculty, staff and current students. |
OSU History Quicklinks
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Chronological History of OSU A year-by-year overview of the history of the university, beginning with the settlement of the Willamette Valley in the early 1840s and running all the way through the conclusion of calendar year 2016. Also check out our separate Campus Buildings Histories guide for details on structures both past and present. |
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Publications A keyword-searchable digital collection featuring: a full run of the Daily Barometer student newspaper; Alumni Magazines, including The Oregon Stater, from 1921 to the present; General Catalogs, beginning in 1866; Sports Media Guides documenting the full spectrum of OSU Athletics; and the entire run of OSU Yearbooks from 1894-2014. |
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Photographs A rich repository of thousands of hand-selected digitized images depicting OSU's history, campus, traditions, and people from the 1800s up to today. |
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Videos A large and continually growing collection of digitized films and videos documenting campus life and athletics, among other topics in OSU history. |
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Oral History SCARC's online oral history presence consists of over 1,200 hours of contexualized interviews covering university history, Oregon Agricultural College, hops and brewing, multicultural communities, womens history and much more. |