Special Collections & Archives is the place where Colby’s early printed books, literary manuscripts, ‘zines, artist’s books, and college archives are located. We are working hard to make our spaces and our collections more welcoming, inclusive, and comfortable for all students. Please let us know if we can do better to make our spaces more accessible.
If you are working on an assignment that requires you to use primary sources, we are here to help you! Our rich and deeply-interconnected collections span seven centuries to the present, and feature an extensive range of two and three -dimensional formats. These compelling materials are here for you to explore, research, and enjoy!
Special Collections & Archives takes a hands-on approach to archival exploration. We encourage Colby students to handle and experience our materials using all of your senses in order to better comprehend them.
While you may come to Special Collections for a class visit (we hope so!), remember that we also strongly encourage and support individual student research using our materials, which can sometimes provide opportunities for original research. We are always happy to support a wide range of scholarship, from web sites to ‘zines, performance to student-curated exhibits, to the more traditional scholarly paper or thesis.
We also always appreciate feedback on class visits, especially from students, so that we can continue to improve how we teach with our materials and how we can best support your research, learning, and scholarship at Colby.