About @ Special Collections and Archives

Overview of Collections

	*Aviation History* An internationally recognized aviation history archives, WSU houses one of the largest Wright Brothers collections in the world. Additional aviation collections include thousands of photographs, films, technical reports, manuals, and aeronautical engine drawings documenting the history of flight from gliders to the space age.
	*Local and Regional History* Special Collections plays an integral role in preserving the history of an eleven county region in central southwest Ohio. Manuscripts focus on the arts, politics and government , labor, civic organizations, personal and family papers, women’s history, business, cultural and fraternal organizations, and church history.
	Cold War Aerospace Technology The Cold War Aerospace Technology History Project documents, through oral history and manuscript collections, the creativity that produced Cold War era aerospace technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base and in the Miami Valley of Ohio.
	**Genealogy & Ohio Network of American History Research Centers: Region 7** Local government records for an eleven county area in southwest Ohio, published and unpublished family histories, cemetery records, census records, county histories, city directories, naturalization records, military rosters, atlases, maps, family papers, and church records offer the genealogist a wealth of resources for researching family history.
	*Aerospace Medicine/Human Factors Engineering* Collections include the papers of Ross A. McFarland, the father of human factors engineering, the Howard Hasbrook Aviation Crash Injury Research Collection, records of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine and many other manuscripts documenting aerospace medicine. WSU is also one of a select group of repositories for NASA shuttle flight medical data.
	*Paul Laurence Dunbar* Special Collections and Archives has a nearly complete inscribed collection of Dunbar's first editions. The Paul Laurence Dunbar Digital Collection offers access to hundreds of Dunbar’s poems and libretti, a photo gallery, poetry index, biographical sketch, and links to additional information about his life and work.
	*History of Medicine/Local Medical History* The local and regional medical history of the Miami Valley is documented through collections of local physicians, hospitals, and medical societies. A significant collection of rare books includes early American medical imprints, important works on medical jurisprudence, and books on nursing. An extensive collection of early medical instruments documents medical practices and procedures over the past two centuries.
	Wright State University Archives ~ WSU 40th Anniversary, 1967 - 2007 Special Collections and Archives is the official repository for the history of Wright State University. The University Archives houses documents, photographs, films, publications, president’s papers, Board of Trustees minutes and other records detailing WSU’s founding and growth. The archives administers a strong records management program and offers university history research services and faculty and staff training in the retention and disposal of all types of records.
	*Aviation Juvenile Literature* An extensive collection of aviation juvenile fiction includes titles such as The Biggles Books describing air combat during WWI, The Girl Aviator Series by Margaret Burnham, Our Young Aeroplane Scouts by Horace Porter, and The Rex Lee Flying Stories by Thomson Burtis. These adventure series made aviation come alive for young readers in the early years of this new technology.
	*Exhibits and Images* The archives offers online exhibits of images and documents as well as an active exhibit program of original materials in both the Dunbar and Fordham Libraries. For a list of current physical exhibits in the libraries, go to our main news page. The archives is a contributor of images to OhioLINK’s Digital Media Center, OhioLINK’s Digital Resource Commons and the Ohio Memory Project. To inquire about ordering reproductions of images, contact us at 937-775-2092.

Special Collections & Archives Department
Wright State University Libraries
3640 Colonel Glenn Highway Dayton, Ohio - 45435
Phone: (937)775-2902, FAX (937) 775-4109
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Last updated Tue. May-13-08 Copyright Information © 2005