Shayna Gutcho, William & Mary Libraries Mosaic Fellow, gives an introduction to the Digital Archive and the Special Collections and University Archives resources you can access from home. Read on to learn more about our digitized materials.
With social distancing becoming the new norm for the next several weeks, William & Mary Libraries and the Special Collections Research Center are committed to helping our community transition into working, teaching, and learning from home. While our doors are currently closed to the public, the William & Mary Libraries Digital Archive remains an uninterrupted resource for both research and leisure—accessible to everyone and available from the comfort of your home!
The Digital Archive is home to digitized material from our manuscript, rare book, and university archives collections. Materials uploaded here come in many different forms: PDF scans, JPEG images, transcriptions, and audio and visual files.
If you are missing the university's printed publications, the Digital Archive has everything from digitized issues of The Flat Hat to The Gallery to The DoG Street Journal. If you're interested in seeing how campus life has changed and grown since William & Mary's earlier days, the Digital Archive has copies of the Colonial Echo, the university's annual yearbook, ranging from 1899 to the 21st century! While browsing the Digital Archive is not the exact same experience as being on campus, you have a piece of William & Mary with you on your desktop.
If you are looking for primary sources for class or research, the Digital Archive offers several options. From women's diaries to oral histories to Cuban film posters to the personal correspondence of President James Monroe, the Digital Archive has a little bit of everything!
Not sure where to start? Try a basic keyword search in the search box, or navigate to the "Communities & Collections" tab on the right page to see some of our major collecting groups. Additionally, the "Subjects" tab highlights materials that have been tagged with a specific subject heading.
These are difficult and uncertain times, and we hope our online resources can provide you with a bit of comfort and familiarity. If you have any questions about the Digital Archive or conducting research with us remotely, feel free to reach out via email at spcoll@wm.edu.
