Archives & Special Collections
Archives and Special Collections provides access to over five linear kilometres of archival records, including theses, yearbooks, campus newspapers and the private archives of influential Canadians. The collections include rare book holdings, significant literary, historical, musical and cultural archives, collections of popular and science fiction, rare works on the Arctic, the largest collection of Canadian architectural drawings and records in the country, and the corporate records of the University of Calgary. From comic books to the EMI Music Canada Archive to the Canadian Architectural Archives to the papers of Nobel Prize winning author Alice Munro, the holdings in Archives and Special Collections attract researchers from around the world.
Archives by the numbers
Total Staff: 24
Archival Repositories: 4
Books: 105,000
Cultural heritage materials for today and the future
We connect learners, readers, scholars, and members of the public to a rich collection of rare and archival materials that tell the human story.
Canadian Architectural Archives
The story of Canadian architecture as told through the archives of Canadian architects and architecture firms.
Glenbow Library and Archives
Documents the human and natural history of Southern Alberta. It includes historic documents from many of the major energy companies in Western Canada.
Library and Archives at the Military Museums
Book and archival collections document the history of Canadian participation in the military, and provide extensive primary source materials on world conflicts.
Special Collections
The archives of Canadians who have made their mark as poets, short story writers, novelists, playwrights, mathematicians, composers, musicologists, media figures, record producers, publishers, politicians, historians and more.
University Archives
The official record of the University of Calgary’s history, and the management of campus information and records.Article from University Affairs: U of Calgary offers a new state-of-the-art home for a massive collection of Western Canadian history
Article from University Affairs: U of Calgary offers a new state-of-the-art home for a massive collection of Western Canadian history
Acquiring the Glenbow collection, now housed primarily at the High Density Library, has doubled the university’s archival collection. By Laura Beulne- ...
A Glenbow Halloween
A Glenbow Halloween
Children carving a Halloween pumpkin, Calgary, Alberta, 1947. Photo by Lorne Burkell. Glenbow Library and Archives, UCalgary: PA-3637-7. It’s a Glenbo ...
Historical photographic processes
Historical photographic processes
First Nations people in canoes near Edmonton, Alberta, celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1920. Lantern slide, blac ...