University of California’s free gateway to a world of primary sources that reveal the diverse history and culture of California and its role in national and world history. A variety of digitized primary sources are collected into sets that support the California Content Standards for use in K-12 classrooms. Themed collections are specifically designed to help educators quickly find primary sources for classroom use, based on time periods and themes.
Digital information resource that facilitates and provides access to primary source materials held in institutions across California.
California Digital Newspaper Collection
Freely accessible and searchable repository of digitized California newspapers from 1846 to the present.
Digital Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps
Digitized historic maps of US cities and towns. Cal Poly users have access to a subscription database of California Sanborn maps, which are frequently used for historical research and preservation and restoration efforts.
Special Collections and Archives at Kennedy Library cares for the primary source and archival collections in the library. We document California architecture and the built environment, including the professional and personal work of architects, landscape architects, architectural photographers, and related fields.
Anyone can use Special Collections and Archives for their research. Archives staff can help you locate architectural and built environment archives at other institutions.
We can also help you research the history of sites and buildings, historical demographic data, and other historic materials that can help with your evaluation of buildings and sites.
Special Collections and Archives houses the personal and professional papers of architects, landscape architects, architectural photographers, and more collections related to the built environment of California.
Types of materials include:
Areas of emphasis at Cal Poly's Special Collections and Archives:
Image: Laura, an archivist at SCA, is looking in a Flat File folder
from the William F. Cody 2 Papers holding architectural drawings on tissue.
Special Collections and Archives has digitized hundreds of items from our architectural archives. You can explore these at our Online Archive database.
Here are some places to start for inspiration or browsing:
View of Morgan's student sketchbook in the Online Archive
If you are researching an architect who is not at Cal Poly, you will want to determine where that architect's papers are located. Locations vary, sometimes the architect and their family may have their records, and sometimes an archive holds their papers. To check if an archives has their records:
Finding digitized materials
Some architectural records may be found in other collections than the architect, such as:
Use a Google Advanced Search
Using Google Advanced Search with specific search terms can help yield more focused results. Within Advanced Search, use the "all of these words" and the "This exact word or phrase" to enter keywords for your subject, for example:
Also try:
Also try (separately):
Special Collections and Archives houses over 600 unique and limited artists' books. They are resources for design inspiration, creative book construction, binding and printing techniques, and may provide inspiration for your projects, portfolios, senior projects. Many are architectural in inspiration and structure as well. Learn more about the artists books collection at this guide.
Pyramids Artist Book from Robert E. Kennedy Library on Vimeo.