Eberly Family Special Collections Library

The Eberly Family Special Collections Library at Penn State - University Park is home to more than 200,000 printed volumes, more than 25 million archival records and manuscripts, and another million photographs, maps, prints, and audio-visual items. We offer primary source materials for a diverse community of researchers, who range from K-12 and Penn State students, as well as scholars around the world. We collect in a variety of subject disciplines, a sampling of which includes Utopian literature, science fiction, labor organization and representation, local Centre County history, and we are also home to the Penn State University Archives.

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Featured Collections

University Libraries collects and makes accessible materials that meet the teaching and research needs of the University. Penn State University Libraries' collections include vast numbers of print volumes, online resources, films in DVD and streaming formats, maps, and archival materials.

Luis Alberto Sánchez Papers

This collection of correspondence, manuscripts, and other materials documents the leadership of Luis Alberto Sánchez in the American Popular Revolutionary Alliance Party (APRA), his relationship with Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Peruvian political history, mid-20th century Latin American...

Cover of women's suffrage publication. A pencil drawing of a woman holding an infant is on the cover and reads, Wanted Just one good reason why I am not entitled to a voice in the government.

Women's Suffrage Collection

The Women’s Suffrage collection documents both the national women’s rights movement and the women’s suffrage movement in Pennsylvania purchased by the Eberly Family Special Collections Library. These materials include booklets, editorial cartoons, fliers and pamphlets documenting the work of : the...

Handwritten lemon tart recipe from historical recipe book

Historical Recipe Books

These unique handwritten recipe books (1697-1846) from the Eberly Family Special Collections Library include British and Scottish food recipes as well as medicinal and textile dying recipes.

Rails to Penn State – the Bellefonte Central Railroad in Historical Perspective

The Bellefonte Central Railroad played a decisive role in both the economic development of the Centre County region and the rise of The Pennsylvania State University. The short line began rail transport in 1886 as the Buffalo Run, Bellefonte, and Bald Eagle Railroad (BRB&BE) hauling iron ore from...

World War Two Letters

During World War II, many Penn State Altoona students and faculty joined the war effort. While these members of the college community were stationed overseas, Mr. Eiche corresponded with them via letters. Many of these veterans returned to finish their education after the war ended.