Vanderbilt University’s Special Collections Library has a variety of digital and digitized collections for users to explore. Select a collection from the list below to begin exploring these resources.
JSTOR’s Shared Collections initiative is Vanderbilt’s primary platform for sharing manuscripts, photographs, yearbooks, and publications from Special Collections and University Archives. Materials on this site are freely available to the Vanderbilt community and outside researchers.
Aviary is Vanderbilt’s platform for sharing and streaming digitized and born digital audiovisual content from its Special Collections and Music Library. The majority of items in Aviary are grouped into distinct, curated collections and are available for download when allowed.
Every issue of Vanderbilt’s yearbook, The Commodore (1909-2017), has been digitized and made freely available on JSTOR. Earlier yearbooks published as “The Comet” (1887-1909) and Peabody College’s “The Pillar” (1949-1979) are also available.
The J. León Helguera Collection of Colombiana at Vanderbilt University includes unique primary sources on 17th to 20th-century Colombian history and culture. The database includes a selection of full text searchable broadsides, 19th and early 20th-century pamphlets, and educational programs. Also included are online exhibits on 19th-century Colombian history.
Manuel Zapata Olivella, noted Afro-Colombian novelist, anthropologist, folklorist, physician and playwright, was known throughout Latin America as the “Dean of Black Hispanic Writers.” The digitized papers have been made available to the Vanderbilt community on JSTOR (public access expected soon). A curated MZO database was previously created to provide a curated selection of digitized material from the papers.
Delia Zapata Olivella committed her life’s work to performing, promoting, and preserving Colombian dance traditions, folkloric culture, and the performing arts. She investigated traditions and customs throughout Colombia, interviewing and studying communities in all regions, from the Wayuu indigenous to the coastal Afro-Colombians and focusing on authentic music, attire, and dance.
The Hustler (est. 1888) is Vanderbilt’s student newspaper. Until 1967, The Hustler was published weekly. In 1968 it expanded to twice a week but by the 1990s it had again become a once-weekly publication. From 2007 to 2016 the newspaper maintained an electronic format as well as hard copies. The last paper issue was April 20, 2016, and when the fall semester began The Hustler became an all-electronic publication.
Beginning with Anna C. Hoyt’s generous donation of 105 Old Master and modern prints more than 50 years ago, the Vanderbilt Museum of Art collection has continued to flourish and increase the depth, diversity, and number of its holdings. Now totaling more almost 7,000 works, it serves to illustrate the history of world art in its most creative and comprehensive aspects.
VUMC Through Time: A Photographic Archive contains containing over 1500 public images of Vanderbilt Medical Center’s people and places from the late 1800s to the recent past. We’ve selected most of these images from the History of Medicine Collections’ archival collections, but we also encourage visitors to add their own historical images, either through our contribution form or by contacting us for other arrangements. Our goal is to make it easy to share images with our users and for them to share their own images with each other.
The Vanderbilt University Theatre Archive includes production photographs and programs for performances from 2000 up to the present. Productions include offerings from classical playwrights, new playwrights, and original plays by Vanderbilt University Theatre cast members.
The Global Music Archive is a multi-media reference archive and resource center for traditional and popular song, music, and dance of Africa and the Americas. It is a public facility that promotes education in African and American traditional and popular music through its own activities and by supporting the activities of others. The archive is housed within the Anne Potter Wilson Music Library in Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music.
This collection of Judge Hu C. Anderson’s personal trial papers, stored in the Vanderbilt University Law Library, represent his experience as presiding judge of subsequent Nürnberg Trial 10, formally known as Military Tribunal III: the United States of America vs. Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, et al. The Vanderbilt Law Library, in collaboration with Vanderbilt University Libraries, is currently digitizing these papers in their entirety.
The Contini-Volterra Photographic Archive contains over 50,000 photographs of art objects created in Europe during the 13th through 20th centuries. The collection is especially strong in Italian art of the 13th through 18th centuries. Through a grant from the Samuel K. Kress Foundation, the collection has been completely digitized and described.