The Julian Edison Department of Special Collections’ manuscript holdings comprise more than a quarter million items. The majority of these fall within the Modern Literature Collection, a repository of materials that documents the histories of more than 175 authors, presses, and periodicals, and constitutes one of the most comprehensive resources for the study of contemporary Anglo-American literature in the United States.

Other significant manuscript collections found within Special Collections include the Papyri Collection of ancient Egyptian manuscript fragments, the  George N. Meissner Collection of manuscript items associated with various historical and literary figures, and a significant archive of ancient and medieval manuscripts. Together with the Modern Literature Collection, these and other holdings make Washington University’s manuscript collections a premier research archive.

Spring 2021: Special Collections is in the process of migrating finding aids to ArchivesSpace. Please note that some finding aids have not yet been transferred into ArchivesSpace but are still available in our current system, Archon. If you need assistance locating a collection, please contact us for more information.