Global Modernism

The Department of Special Collections is located on the lower level of the Young Research Library, at the foot of the central staircase. Collections include manuscripts, rare books, photographs, art, and more.

A guide to art-related holdings in UCLA Special Collections.

A guide to nineteenth and twentieth-century English and American literature in UCLA Special Collections.

Finding aids for primary source collections in all UC campuses and other contributing institutions, including libraries, special collections, archives, historical societies, and museums throughout California.

The Archives today is the world’s pre-eminent and most widely used research center dedicated to collecting, preserving, and providing access to primary sources that document the history of the visual arts in America.

The Art Institute of Chicago Archives collects, preserves and makes available materials related to the history of the Art Institute of Chicago, the School, as well as materials related to the history of art, architecture and design in the Chicago area.

The special collections consist of rare and unique materials from the 15th century to the present: nearly 50,000 rare books, more than 27,000 single prints and drawings in albums and collections, 800 collections of rare photographs, and more than 12,000 linear feet of manuscripts and archives, as well as optical devices and 20th-century multiples and videos. These diverse resources have been acquired for their research value to art historians and scholars in related fields.

The Ransom Center is an internationally renowned humanities research center at The University of Texas at Austin. Extensive collections provide unique insight into the creative process of some of the finest writers and artists. Modernism is a particular focus within the literature collection.

The Museum of Modern Art Archives is an internationally recognized research center for modern and contemporary art. The Archives collects, preserves, and makes accessible nearly 90 years’ worth of the Museum’s historical records, 40 years’ worth of MoMA PS1 records, and other primary source documents concerning art and cultural history in the 20th and 21st centuries, including private archives and papers of artists, galleries, dealers, art historians, critics, and others.

The Smithsonian Libraries and Archives' Art and Artist Files are an exceptionally valuable resource for art historical research done on emerging regional and local artists and often are the only obtainable sources of information on those artists. Spread over seven branches, the vertical files contain information on artists and art collectives, galleries, and museums from around the world, but primarily from North America and Africa. There are over 150,000 files that contain ephemera such as exhibition announcements, newspaper and magazine clippings, press releases, brochures, reviews, invitations to gallery shows, illustrations, résumés, artists' statements, small catalogs, and/or reproductions.