Penn State University Libraries - Historical Collections & Labor Archives

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS AND LABOR ARCHIVES

HCLA houses more than 400 collections, including oral histories, photographs, newspapers, leaflets, pamphlets, sound recordings, films, maps, and posters, dating from 1650 to the 1980s, documenting the history of Pennsylvania and U.S. industrial society.

If you have not used a special collections library before, please note that we are open for fewer hours than some parts of the library, and that you must use our materials in our reading room. Some materials are stored offsite, and some materials are restricted. For more information, please visit our brief online tutorial and tour.

Major Collecting Areas

Labor History

Including:

• Union records
• Personal papers of union leaders
• Oral histories of union workers
• New: Guide to Steelworkers Organizing Committee Records

State and Local History

Including:

• Historical maps
• Court documents
• Property records

Pennsylvania Business/Industrial History

Including:

• Coal and oil
• Iron, steel, metal and machinery
• Lumber and wood
• Railroads

Military History

Diversity & Social Justice
[See "Primary Sources" tab]

Digitized Collections

Bellefonte Central Railroad (with University Archives)

Beneath the Surface: Life, Work and Social Structure in the Mining Community of Heilwood, Pennsylvania (T.R. Johns Collection)

Eighth Air Force Archive

Fay S. Lincoln Photograph Collection

Homefront to Battlefront: Celebrating the Civil War Legacy

Horowitz Transaction Publishers Archive

Jack Rabin Collection on Alabama Civil Rights and Southern Activists

Juniata County History Project

Pennsylvania Bridges Collection, 1884-1915

Robert Joyce Oral History Transcript

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

Selections from the William Warren Scranton Papers

Thomas W. Benson Political Protest Digital Collection

William C. Darrah Collection of Cartes-de-visite, 1860-1900