Our Mission
The Mission of Purdue University Northwest Archives and Special Collections is to identify, collect, preserve, and make materials of value that document the history, culture, scholarship, advancements, people, and achievements of the university’s faculty, staff, and students accessible to researchers.
What is an Archive and Special Collection?
Our department holds books, documents, photographs and other items that are important to Purdue University Northwest history. Many of these resources are irreplaceable, so our policies and procedures are different from the rest of the University Library.
Explore our Archival Collections
The Purdue University Northwest Archives and Special Collections uses an ArchivesSpace page for our catalog. Our catalog hold some digital media and our finding aids, Researchers use "finding aids" to determine which archival records will provide information about their research topics. The finding aids on our website describe a different archival collection. This description may be a paragraph that explains who created the records or summarizes the collection or may be followed by a more detailed list of folders. Once you've found a collection to you'd like to see, write down the name, and which boxes in the collection seem most interesting. Bring this information to Special Collections, or email us for a copy at Joseph Coates or Alan McCafferty
Click below to explore our Finding Aids
Historic Digital Collection
We currently have an online digital collection of historic print items, along with pictures, oral histories, sound libraries, and moving images. Through a partnership with the Internet Archives, this collection of over 1,300 items and growing, this repository opens up our history to a world wide audience.
The Purdue University Calumet and Purdue University North Central student newspapers digitized and available online. These collections give the history of both universities through the eyes of our students.
Legacy Campus Digital Collections on Internet Archive
*NEW* Digital Collections Access & Discovery Portal
Historic Press Releases
This collection is a directory of the historic press releases from Purdue University North Central and Purdue University Calumet. This directory is not yet complete, so please ask if you need anything not listed. These are arranged chronologically and by title.
