Special Collections opened its doors in 1969, when Roger H. Guedalla and George Quasha of the University’s English Department purchased a Modern Literature collection, which contained books and manuscripts focusing on the extraordinary group of authors and poets who had been involved with the Black Mountain College in North Carolina. These manuscripts are now housed within our Historic and Literary Manuscripts Collection (MC 100) and include original materials by Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, and Fielding Dawson.

The manuscript and rare book collections document and support a wide range of disciplines. Collection highlights include:

	The Senator Jacob K. Javits Collection contains two million separate items, including printed documents, photographs, and motion picture footage.		Chinese Cookbook Collection: over 2,600 English- language cookbooks donated by historian Dr. Jacqueline M. Newman.
	Long Island Collection: book, manuscript, map, and digitized collections on all aspects of Long Island history, including: politics; environmental science; literature; and the arts.		AIDC 100 Archives: the collections of individuals and corporations that provide leadership and focus for the Automatic Identification Data Capture industry.
	The William Butler Yeats Microfilmed Manuscripts Collection is the most extensive collection of the famed Irish poet and author’s manuscripts in existence housed outside of Ireland.		University Photographic Collection The photographic image collection consists of over 10,000 positive and negative prints, 35 mm negatives, printed contact sheets, 35 mm slides and mounted, oversized materials.
	Contemporary Letters and Literature: manuscripts and works by Pietro di Donato, John Ciardi, Jorge Carrera Andrade, and Robert Payne.

The University Archives includes printed, manuscript, and ephemeral materials created by the administration, faculty, staff, and students at Stony Brook. The holdings include complete sets of The Statesman, the student newspaper, Specula, the yearbook, faculty directories, annual reports, catalogs, departmental papers, and extensive photograph collections.