Special collections are collections of manuscripts, rare books, artifacts, audiovisual materials, and other items that provide original and often firsthand insight into history. They range from diaries and correspondence to official government records, from scrapbooks to newspapers, and from parchment to compact discs.
Areas of collecting strengths at Oakland University include:
Oakland University Library's Special Collections hold numerous local history resources documenting people, places, and events of Oakland County and Southeast Michigan, including:
Special Collections at Oakland University are rich in materials dating from the Civil War and documenting Lincoln's presidency and assassination, most notably:
Oakland University has acquired and preserved a number of political collections documenting important local, state, and national events of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Highlights include:
Donagh MacDonagh (1912-1968) was a noted Irish playwright, poet, broadcaster, and judge. A graduate of University College Dubin, MacDonagh was involved in the Irish Modernism movement and maintained professional and personal relationships with many authors of the period.
One portion of the collection is the Donagh MacDonagh papers, which includes correspondence, writings, and miscellany. The collection also contains about 200 print books and pamphlets, predominantly from 1900-1960s; correspondence between MacDonagh and editors of literary journals (notably English author and poet T.S. Eliot of The Criterion); corrected proofs and typescripts of some of MacDonagh’s poetry and plays; and Irish literary periodicals. Many of the print books and pamphlets bear ownership marks, as well as inscriptions and notes from their authors. Imprints from the famous Cuala Press and Dolmen Press, and a large collection of Irish journals and magazines, is also included.
The Marguerite Hicks Collection of Women's Writings
This collection is one of the first intentional collections of works by, and about, women from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to be gathered by an American collector.
In 1971 Oakland University’s Kresge Library purchased the collection 900+ items of seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth-century books, printed materials, and manuscripts by and about British women writers from Marguerite Bieber Hicks, who started building her collection in the 1930s.
The collection features broadsides, novels, cookbooks, political tracts, educational texts, sermons, plays, poetry, and more. Dozens of the items in this collection exist in fewer than ten known copies worldwide, and a handful are uniquely existing copies.
Dr. Thelma James was a professor at Wayne State University for many years and accumulated a large collection of folklore materials. Her donation of some 750 volumes, many of which are rare and out-of-print, is strong on the folklore of various regions of the United States, including Michigan, as well as that of other countries. The topic of witchcraft, and its various practices, is also represented by titles in her collection.
Our rare book collection of 2,730 books is particularly strong in Michigan local history, 19th and 20th century British and American literature, and private presses.
The Robert Gaylor LGBTQ+ Collection
The Robert Gaylor LGBTQ+ Collection includes more than 3,200 books and other materials focusing on LGBTQ+ people and social issues. Fiction and non-fiction works are present, covering a wide range of disciplines such as religion, philosophy, history, psychology, sociology, politics, literature, and the arts. Approximately 40 percent of the collection features gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or queer fictional characters. Several important journals, magazines, newspapers and other periodicals are also included.
The Jane M. Bingham Historical Children's Literature Collection
Professor Jane M. Bingham, an emerita education professor at Oakland University and an expert on children's literature, amassed this collection of historic children's books, periodicals, and artifacts. The books are arranged in chronological order so that researchers can see how children's books developed over the decades. The collection also includes a section of reference books related to children's literature.
The personal library of Jonathan Riley-Smith, a prominent historian of the Crusades, contains hundreds of books, but also slides of historic sites in the Middle East, personal papers, recordings, and photographs.
Thomas Jefferson was a prolific letter writer, conversing with scores of fellow men of letters throughout his life. Within Oakland University’s archives and special collections are two important artifacts that pertain to the mind of Thomas Jefferson. Information about these items is available at this link.
(326-328 KL)
This collection of over 400 contemporary books on China has been made possible through the generosity of Opal Redman. Ms. Redman, a retired Detroit school teacher, went to China first in 1990 to train teachers of English and eventually coordinated the efforts of the SEHS Chinese Summer Language Institute at Guizhou Normal University in Giuyang, China for many years. She is the author of "The Ripple Effect" and co-author of "Change and Growth in the Oakland/Guizhou Program" in which she talks about her experiences with the Guizhou - Oakland partnership.
Robert Malcomson was a movie enthusiast and built a collection of film books, magazines and film memorabilia. After his death in 1999, Kresge Library obtained his wonderful collection of approximately 500 books and movie journals through the efforts of English professors Robert Eberwein and Brian Murphy. The books are now part of the general circulating collection and can be identified by a keyword search for "malcomson gift"
Books and book chapters published by Oakland University faculty are available in the circulating collection and are searchable via a keyword search for "Oakland University Faculty Collection."
(Archives and Special Collections KL 105, access to the materials available by appointment)
This is a collection of the master's and Ph.D. theses that have been written by Oakland University graduate students. The theses can be found by doing a Subject Search in the library catalog for 'oakland university dissertations' or by limiting the search to the location: Theses/Dissertations.