About Special Collections
The Special Collections Department of the College of Charleston is located on the third floor of the Marlene and Nathan Addlestone Library. The primary mission of Special Collections is to evaluate, acquire,
organize, preserve, and make available rare printed and archival materials. Its holdings include the College archives, rare books, and manuscripts.
Manuscript Collections and Artwork
Special Collections is home to over 500 separate manuscript
collections that vary in size from a single item to collections over
400 linear feet. The largest collections are the College of Charleston
Archive, the Spoleto Festival Archive, the Jewish Heritage Collection,
the L. Mendel Rivers Collection, and the Burnet R. Maybank Senatorial
Papers. All cataloged manuscript collections are available for public
viewing during normal business hours; however, certain restrictions may
apply for rare or fragile materials. Additionally, Special Collections
houses a number of other non-book collections including the World War I
and II poster collections, the South Carolina map collection, the
Middleton Family artwork, and the artwork and photographs of naturalist
John Henry Dick.
Printed Materials
Special Collections houses roughly 35,000 cataloged volumes that
include but are not limited to the John Henry Dick ornithology
collections, the Colonial Library of Ralph Izard, the Mitchell King
Library, the Wendell Levi Library, the Staats Book Arts collection, the
Grimke collection of nineteenth century pamphlets, the Derrydale Press
collection, the Dr. D.L. Frampton Library, the John Mackenzie Library,
the College of Charleston's antebellum Library, the James Warley Miles
Library, and the library of the College of Charleston's Chrestomathic
Society.
