Discover
Archives & Special Collections brings together an extensive range of rare, unique, and internationally important collections.
We offer a number of ways for you to discover our collections, including dedicated search services, introductory overviews, and thematic & subject guides.
Search Our Collections
University Collections
Discover resources across Archives & Special Collections and The Hunterian:
You can search within the following ASC collections:
- University Archive - the official records of the University of Glasgow created and accumulated since our foundation in 1451, and records of the University's staff, alumni, and associated organisations.
- Manuscripts - an outstanding library of rare material including illuminated medieval and renaissance manuscripts, personal collections of correspondence, music scores, drawings, early photographs, maps, and ephemera.
- Scottish Business Archive - records of Scottish businesses dating from the 18th century to the present.
- Scottish Theatre Archive - programmes scripts, production notes, photographs, posters, press cuttings, business papers and correspondence of Scotland's theatres.
Explore our University Collections Search Video Guides for tips on effective searching.
Rare Books
Works predominantly pre-1800 in date, but also items such as 19th-century colour plate books and works emanating from private presses.
Incunabula
Search the 1,000 plus rare books printed before 1501 held across our collections.
A stand-alone catalogue of the 1,000 plus incunabula in the University of Glasgow Library and other Glasgow institutions in the form of a digital catalogue published on the University Library’s website.
House of Fraser Archive
Search the House of Fraser Archive
The House of Fraser Archive offers a fascinating glimpse into the history of one of Britain's leading department stores. House of Fraser has a long and distinguished history. Founded in 1849 as a small drapery shop on the corner of Argyle Street and Buchanan Street in Glasgow, it expanded rapidly, acquiring some 200 different stores, and opening branches in many parts of the world.
The Archive is an outstanding source for the history of British design, fashion, tastes, lifestyles, consumerism and consumption from the early nineteenth to the end of the twentieth century.
Collection Overviews
- University Archives - The official records of the University since 1451 and records deposited by staff, alumni, and associated organisations.
- Rare books and manuscripts - Internationally significant manuscripts collections including music scores, drawings, early photographs, maps and ephemera; and collections of rare books predominantly pre-1800, but also items such as 19th-century colour plate books and works emanating from private presses.
- Scottish Business Archive - Records of Scottish businesses dating from the 18th century to the present.
- Scottish Theatre Archive - Programmes scripts, production notes, photographs, posters, press cuttings, business papers and correspondence of Scotland's theatres.
- Art, Literature, and Performing Arts - Collections of artists and photographers, collections of writers and publishers, and records of Scottish theatre and collections of music
- Medical humanities - Research resources relating to forensic medicine, zika virus, William Hunter's library and more.
- Incunabula - A collection of rare books printed prior to 1501.
- 19th century novels - 1,800 items including many works outside the boundaries of the mainstream 19th-century fiction canon.
- Hill and Adamson photo collection - Photographs produced by the partnership of David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson between 1843 and 1847.
- Scottish Chapbooks - Small paper-covered booklets in circulation from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
Thematic and subject guides
- University & Scottish Business Archive guides - Research topic guides to these collections.
- Special collections A-Z - Browse the introductions to our named special collections.
- Special collections A-Z subject - Subject guides to our rare book, manuscript, and Scottish Theatre Archive collections.
