Direct links to online finding aids for archives and manuscripts

UC Irvine Finding Aids | Other Finding Aids (including other UCs)

• Location
  
• Hours
  
• Types of Materials
  
• Major Collections
  
  1. The Regional California History and Literature Collection
     
  2. The Critical Theory Archive
     
  3. The René Wellek Collection of the History of Criticism
     
  4. The Dance and Performing Arts Collection
     
  5. The American and British Author Collection
     
  6. The Hans Waldmüller Thomas Mann Collection
     
  7. The Alfonso Sastre Collection
     
  8. Manuscript Collections of UCI Scientists
     
  9. The Rare Book Collection
     
  10. The Book Arts Collection
      
  11. The British Naval History Collection
      
  12. The Emma D. Menninger Collection in Horticulture
      
  13. The Contemporary Poetry Collection
      
  14. The Political Pamphlet Collection
      
• Catalogs
• Reference Service
• The Online UC Irvine Critical Theory Resource

Location

Department of Special Collections
Main Library, 5th Floor
The UCI Libraries
P.O.Box 19557
University of California
Irvine, CA 92623-9557
Phone: (949)824-7227
FAX: (949) 824-2472
Email: spcoll@uci.edu

Types of Materials

Hours

10:00a.m. - 6:00p.m., Monday through Friday. and 1:00pm - 5:00p.m., Saturday

Closed holidays, as well as on Saturdays during intersessions.

Major Collections

1. The Regional California History and Literature Collection, including the Don Meadows Collection of Orange County, California, and Baja California materials. In addition to extensive book, pamphlet, periodical, photograph, manuscript, map, and ephemera holdings, the collection contains the papers of local political figures such as Congressman Robert Badham and Orange County Supervisor Willis H. Warner.

2. The Critical Theory Archive, including the papers of Jacques Derrida, Paul de Man, René Wellek, Murray Krieger, Ihab Habib Hassan, and Wolfgang Iser.

3. The René Wellek Collection of the History of Criticism, consisting of Wellek's own library of essential works in the history of literary criticism and literary theory.

4. The Dance and Performing Arts Collection, founded on donations from Olga Maynard, Eugene Loring, Preston Sturges, Ruth Clark Lert, and others. Contains over 4,000 books and periodicals, supplemented by numerous souvenir programs, photographs, and manuscripts documenting dance, costume, and theater, with particular coverage of the arts in Southern California.

5. The American and British Author Collections, including extensive holdings of works by MacDonald Harris, Ross Macdonald, Kathleen Raine, Robert Ray, John Steinbeck, William Harrison Ainsworth, and Richard Burton. The book collections are complemented by the literary manuscripts of Harris, Macdonald, Ray, and Raine.

6. The Hans Waldmüller Thomas Mann Collection, notable for its comprehensive assemblage of German-language works by and about Thomas Mann.

7. The Alfonso Sastre Collection of manuscripts of the plays of this major contemporary Spanish dramatist.

8. Manuscript Collections of UCI Scientists, including the papers of neurophysiologist Ralph W. Gerard, Deans of Biological Sciences Edward A. Steinhaus and Howard A. Schneiderman, and physicist Frederick Reines.

9. The Rare Book Collection, which emphasizes British and other European publications from 1499 through 1800, especially French literature of the 17th and 18th centuries. Particularly notable are a copy of the First Folio of Shakespeare and the collection of extra-illustrated volumes.

10. The Book Arts Collection, containing outstanding examples of book illustration, bookbinding, and fine printing in addition to reference works on printing history and the book arts.

11. The British Naval History Collection, with exceptional coverage of the 1700-1918 period. Includes significant works of discovery and exploration in the Pacific and elsewhere, as well as the papers of the naval historian Arthur Marder.

12. The Emma D. Menninger Collection in Horticulture, notable for its intensive coverage of 19th and 20th-century publications on orchids. Includes a complete set of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, from 1787 to the present.

13. The Contemporary Poetry Collection, containing over 6,000 titles issued by American, British, and Canadian small presses from the 1950's to the present.

14. The Political Pamphlet Collection, including materials focusing on farm labor and women's issues.

Catalogs

Most of the Department's book, pamphlet, and periodical holdings are fully cataloged in the ANTPAC and MELVYL online catalogs. Finding aids for manuscripts and other collections are available in the Department.

Reference Service

The Special Collections reference desk is staffed during all open hours to assist researchers in use of the collections. Limited staff-mediated photocopying is permitted.

The Online UC Irvine Critical Theory Resource

Since 1986, an exhaustive bibliography on each Wellek Library Lecturer has been compiled by Special Collections bibliographer Eddie Yeghiayan. The UC Irvine Critical Theory Resource includes substantially enlarged and revised versions of the Wellek Lecturer bibliographies. Previous versions of only two of these bibliographies have been published in Columbia University Press's Wellek Library Lectures Series. In addition, the Critical Theory Resource includes a number of previously unpublished bibliographies prepared by Dr. Yeghiayan for the Philosophy Program, and for conferences at the University of California Humanities Research Institute.