Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections

The University Archives houses collections created by academic departments and programs. In these collections you will find documentation on the administration and activities of those departments.

The University Archives and Special Collections Finding Aids Database provides keyword searching of the finding aids (guides) to Department and Program collections. The Search Page will search the text of all the fields in the finding aids.

Teaching Functions

The University Archives houses the personal papers of selected Brandeis faculty members, past and present. Finding aids (guides) to these collections are available through our Finding Aids Database.

Faculty Collections

Our Periodical Collection contains official Brandeis news publications, departmental publications, and student publications from the inception of the University.
A list and brief description of each publication is listed in our Finding Aids Database.

Periodical Collection

The University Archives has an extensive collection of images, primarily black and white photographic negatives, that document the history and activities of Brandeis University. Most of the images were created by the Department of University Photography and represent the work of the University Photographer of that time period. These are: Ralph Norman, University Photographer from 1950 to 1981, Julian Brown, University Photographer from 1981 to 2001, Michael Lovett, University Photographer from November 2001 to October 2022, Dan Holmes, University Photographer from December 2022 to the present.

There are two ways to search for University photographs.

• We have a publicly available finding aid for the University Photography Collection in our Finding Aids Database.
• We also have an internal database consisting of thousands of additional negatives which our archivists can search for you. For assistance, please send your request to archives@brandeis.edu.

Photographs which were created by the University Photographer from 1999 to June 2007 have been acquired by the University Archives and are currently being processed. While we are releasing items for public use continually, a large portion of them remain unavailable. We thank you for your patience while we work to describe and preserve these materials.

The University Archives houses collections which document the centers and Institutes which conduct research and their work. These are called categorized under Research Functions, and can be found in our Finding Aids Database.

Research Functions

In addition to materials which can be found in the Periodical Collection, we have several collections which feature student life and activities. Many of these are represented in our Finding Aids Database.

Student Activities

Our University Archives holds several collections which are not based on specific departments, functions, or organizations. These are called Subject Collections, and many can be found in our Finding Aids Database.

Subject Collections

The University Archives maintains copies of senior honor theses, PhD dissertations and a small number of master's theses.

More about Theses and dissertations