Pitt’s Special Collections Inspire and Empower

Kornelia Tancheva

The themes in Pitt’s special collections are three-dimensional cuts across time and culture by way of personal papers, photographs, agency records, recordings, and even accounting books. Movements are documented; individual lives are revealed; moments in history are uncovered. They’re not only special, they are unique. 

Researchers come to Pitt’s special collections for what’s yet undiscoveredor what may shape a thesis. “A researcher may be the first to discover a letter,” says Kornelia Tancheva, director of the University Library System (ULS), “and that begins a new understanding.

“In the collection we hold for jazz legend and composer Errol Garner, a Pittsburgh native, research in the letters reveals not just context for the music he composed, but the details of the negotiations his manager, Martha Glaser, went through to protect his artistic rights in the entertainment industry,” she says. 

The archives are live, used by researchers, graduate and undergraduate students, practitioners, the public, and artists seeking inspiration. 

One of Pitt’s most noted collections is the archive of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. On top of the usual research fellowships ULS offers, a new creative fellowship has just launched, offering financial support for creative artists who use the archive to generate their own creative output. Wilson’s work lives on as a steppingstone to new artistic production.

The country’s premier horror studies archive also is here at Pitt, shaped around the archives of the master of the genre, George Romero. The collection is growing, now focusing intentionally on underrepresented voices in that sphere—including those of female African American and Asian authors.

“This year,” Tancheva says, “we hosted the reception for the StokerCon convention, which took place in Pittsburgh. We showed some of the materials in our collections. One African American author was amazed to see her work featured and told me, ‘Now that I’m in the archives, nobody can erase me.’ That’s a testament to the power of preserving our cultural heritage.”