Donating Materials to Special Collections
The Special Collections & University Archives Department carefully preserves collections of written, visual and audible material created by private citizens, University departments, and organizations. Our goal is to ensure that these personal, family, and organization papers will be available for research. If your personal or family papers are deemed appropriate for our repository, and you agree to donate those papers, you stand to gain many benefits. Your papers will come to an environmentally-controlled, secure storage facility and when processed and cataloged will become part of our online catalog available on the Internet. In future years, researchers - including students, professors, genealogists, journalists and many others - may find your papers both interesting and of value to their work.
Special Collections accepts donations of as little as a single item and as large as dozens of boxes. Material need not be organized; it need not be "old"; and it need not relate to a famous individual, event, or organization in order for it to be historically significant. Generally, however, we are more interested in a coherent body of material rather than individual items. We request that historical material itself not be mailed or dropped off without first consulting with the staff. We need the opportunity to evaluate all materials offered and ask the donor to sign a deed of gift agreement which formally signifies that the papers become the actual property of the library.
The Librarians and Archivists on staff are experts in identifying materials that should be transferred to a repository or manuscript library. Because the research value of records may be diminished if items are removed or if the records are rearranged, donors are encouraged to contact library staff before weeding, discarding, or reorganizing their papers and records.
Although the library cannot accept everything that is offered (whether due to staff and space constraints or because the papers are not within the collecting mission), we welcome the chance to review material; if it is not appropriate for our repository, there may be another place to which we can refer you.
Sensitive material that may exist in individual, family or organization’s papers should not be removed by the donor. Instead, the donor should discuss with library staff the possibility of restricting part of the collection to protect the privacy of the donor or others. While the library desires to make all papers freely accessible to researchers, we normally will agree to reasonable and equitable restrictions for limited periods of time.
Please contact Special Collections at Speccoll@gwu.edu to discuss with staff a donation of materials.
Monetary Appraisals for Tax Deductions
In certain circumstances, it may be possible for a donor to take a tax deduction for the donation of a manuscript collection to a repository. Donors are encouraged to speak with their tax accountants or attorneys about this possibility. Library staff cannot give tax advice, nor are they permitted to appraise the monetary value of a collection. Library staff may be able to provide donors with a list of local manuscript appraisers who can (for a fee) make monetary appraisals for the donor. It is up to the donor to arrange for and bear the cost of any such appraisal, although the repository will make the collection available to an appraiser hired by the donor.
Monetary donations
Most repositories are non-profit organizations. Preparing papers for use by researchers is the most expensive operation in a repository. Although such grants are rarely a prerequisite for the acceptance of a collection, donors who are able to assist repositories by making grants toward the arrangement, cataloging, and conservation of their donations of papers are encouraged to do so.
A list of current funding opportunities include the:
African-American Research Center
Endowed Collection Development Funds
Jack Anderson Papers
Special Collections Research Scholarships
Special Collections Librarianships (e.g. Department Head, Curators)
(adapted from “A Guide to Donating Your Personal or Family Papers to a Repository,” a brochure produced by the Society of American Archivists.)
