Contact Info
Archive, Manuscript & Rare Book collections are accessed in Olin Library at the Special Collections reading room.
HOURS: Monday - Friday 9:00-5:00 by appointment
LOCATION: Olin Library, 1st floor, Danforth Campus
REQUESTS / APPOINTMENTS: 314-935-5495 spec@wumail.wustl.edu
*collections stored offsite require advance notice for retrieval and use
Questions about a specific topic? Contact:
University Archives: Sonya Rooney
Rare Books: Cassie Brand
Manuscript: Joel Minor
Local History: Miranda Rectenwald
Modern Graphic History Library: Skye Lacerte
Film & Media Archive: Andy Uhrich
Primary Sources at Special Collections
This guide contains an overview of collections at the WU Libraries that include primary sources that are broadly related to the war in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (circa 1960-1975). Topics include anti-war protests, environmental issues, and Cold War politics / history.
Collections below are located at Special Collections in Olin Library. Click each title for more information:
- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) CollectionSeries 01 includes documents from both the local WUSTL chapter of SDS, and the national organization. A keyword search for "Vietnam" will return a number of relevant folders.
Series 02 includes unusual pamphlets and publications from China, Cuba, Laos, Sri Lanka, North Korea and elsewhere (in English) along with anti-war publications from independent newspapers in the USA (most dating from the 1960s and 1970s) - WU Student Union: Files of President Ben Zaricor, 1963-1974See folders in Box 1 for documents related to Protests. 1969-1970, and Strikes and SDS materials 1968-1970. Box 2 also contains relevant materials filed under USNSA.
- Environmental Response RecordsEnvironmental Response was a broadly based group, with participation by Washington University students and faculty, and local interested citizens. Formed in Spring 1970, it was an outgrowth of Project Survival at Washington University during the first Earth Week.
- Dan Bolef Papers, Series 06From 1953-1963 Bolef worked as a research physicist in the area of nuclear magnetic resonance for the Westinghouse Research Laboratories. In 1963 Bolef joined the faculty at Washington University in St. Louis as Professor of Physics.
- Walter Lowenfels Papers (MSS074)Consists of letters and contributions to "Where is Vietnam?" A collection of anti-war poems by 89 poets, including poems from the Vietnam Read-Ins.
Collections below are from the Modern Graphic History Library. Contact Special Collections regarding access:
- Kaltenthaler Comic Books and Zines Collection (MGHL00015)Includes comic titles "Vietnam Journal 1-8; 11, 1987-1989 (Apple)" and magazines "Chronicles of War: Vietnam, 1988" and "Vietnam Mission, 1989."
- Humanities Comics Collection (MGHL00016),Includes "Vietnam Journal 1988 (Apple Comics)"
Online Primary Sources
- America in Protest: Records of Anti-Vietnam War Organizations, The Vietnam Veterans Against the War (Archives Unbound) This link opens in a new windowFBI reports dealing with antiwar work carried out by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and their surveillance of antiwar student groups and Communist organizations. Contains over 20,000 pages between 1967-1975.
- Empire Online This link opens in a new windowOver 70,000 images of original documents relating to Empire Studies. The images are sourced from libraries and archives around the world, including a strong core of document images from the British Library.
Secondary Sources
Check the Library Catalog for these subjects: