WashU Libraries

10/30/2026

In honor of Dolores Huerta, who passed away on Wednesday at the age of 96, the WashU Film & Media Archive has digitized and shared the full interview she participated in for the documentary Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle (1997).

Produced, directed, and written by Rick Tejada-Flores and Ray Telles of Paradigm Productions, the documentary traces the history of the United Farm Workers union and the life of its founder, Cesar Chavez. The Film & Media Archive houses the Paradigm Productions Collection, which includes other full interviews filmed for Fight in the Fields, production-related papers, and materials related to the company's other films, The Good War and Those Who Refused to Fight It (2000) and Race Is the Place (2005).

See the interview here:

Interview with Dolores Huerta conducted for "The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers' Struggle." The interview was filmed on June 9, 1995 at La Paz, the headquarters of the United Farmworkers of America (UFW), in Keene, California. "The Fight in the Fields" was made by Paradigm Pro...

10/15/2026

It’s finally sweater season in St. Louis! 🍂 Check out these cozy vintage sweaters from University Archives.

10/14/2026

How should we remember George Washington’s legacy of slavery?

Read our Q&A with author John Garrison Marks about his book Thy Will Be Done, then join us November 5 at Olin Library (or virtually on Zoom) for a special discussion and a chance to view rare historical materials, including two original printed Declarations of Independence.

In the following interview, John Garrison Marks, historian and author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (2026), explores the relationship between George Washington and slavery and how America has grappled with Washington’s legacy for mor...

10/07/2026

Happy Banned Books Week! Stories have the power to spark empathy, challenge ideas, and shape how we see the world, which is why protecting our freedom to read matters. Check out a banned book today from Olin Library!

10/07/2026

This week, Special Collections welcomes Professor Eduardo C. Corral and his graduate students to the Libraries for an inside look at the Modern Literature Collection. The class will explore the tensions between lyric and experimental poetics, the lineage of 20th-century poetics and its influence on 21st-century poetry, and the possibilities and gaps within the archive. Featured materials include works by Robert Duncan, James Merrill, May Swenson, and Amiri Baraka, including Baraka’s letters to Duncan about his poem Black Dada Nihilismus and early works from his LeRoi Jones era.

10/06/2026

We’re excited to announce that the work of world-renowned St. Louis illustrator and entrepreneur Mary Engelbreit is coming to WashU Libraries.

The collection includes 120 original illustrations, books, consumer products and magazine mockups spanning her five-decade career. The collection will be featured in an exhibition opening this July.

“I’ve been to several exhibits at WashU Libraries, and I’m thrilled to think I’ll be an exhibit myself. I hope students will find something useful to study and will be able to see the joy I take in creating. I hope they’ll realize that the joy is the whole point.”

For St. Louis native Mary Engelbreit, five decades of whimsical illustrations have become part of people's memories, from children's books to holiday cards to illustrated calendars.

Now, her creative legacy is coming to WashU Libraries. https://bit.ly/3U6U90Y

10/01/2026

Sorry, we only got photos. Had to get creative💭

09/23/2026

Listen to Joel Minor, curator of manuscripts and the Modern Literature Collection, on the latest episode of the Authors Unbound podcast as he discusses preserving writers’ lives, legacies, and creative processes.

This week on Authors Unbound, we sit down with curator and archivist Joel Minor for a rich conversation about the human work of keeping a writer’s life available to future readers. Minor reflects on the challenge of preserving an increasingly digital writing life, the responsibility of handling materials never necessarily intended for public view, and the strange balance between personal legacy, scholarly value, and the commercial market for writers’ papers. We dive into the intimacy of the manuscripts themselves: Joy Williams cutting and taping together typewritten drafts, James Merrill’s doodles and surviving Ouija board transcripts, and the correspondence, revisions, false starts, and collaborations that reveal literature as a process rather than a polished object.

This is Joel Minor Unbound.

Listen to S4 Ep6: ueplit.short.gy/MinorUnbound

09/22/2026

a brand new (fall) day🍁

09/16/2026

Explore our new digital collections platform!

Discover rare and historically significant photographs, documents, books, audiovisual recordings, and more, all in one searchable place. The new platform brings together collections from across the Libraries, making it easier than ever to explore and access materials from the past.

A new digital collections platform, launched in September 2026, provides access to selected digitized and born-digital materials—including images, documents, books, audiovisual recordings, and other original materials—from the Julian Edison Department of Special Collections and other rare collec...