CSU's Special Collections provide a comprehensive facility for scholars, students and the general public. Our collections cover many topics within the field of Cleveland history, with special concentrations on the history of the industrial history of Northeast Ohio, Cleveland journalism, and the built environment of the city.

The Akron Railroad Club Archives
The archives consist of minutes of the club, 1943-1981 & 1992-1999, audio tapes of meetings & programs and a binder of membership registration forms.

Bill Roberts Editorial Cartoon Collection

The City Club Forum Tape Collection
The City Club has existed as a prominent Cleveland institution since 1912, serving as a meeting place for the exchange of ideas on public issues of local, national, and international concern. Its most visible educational function is the weekly City Club Forums featuring well-known speakers. Over the years the hundreds of distinguished personalities presented have included politicians, labor and business leaders, scientists, educators, clergy and entertainers.

The collection consists of over eight hundred tapes from 1963 to about 1980.

Clay Herrick Slide Collection
Donated by Clay Herrick, author of "Cleveland Landmarks", this collection consists of some 100 pamphlets, brochures, books, and photographs. The most important element is some 6,000 slides; one-of-a-kind shots of various buildings in Cleveland.

Cleveland Local Business Collection
Collected by the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce from about 1940 to 1970.

Cleveland Press Collection
Hundreds of thousands of clippings and photographs from the "morgue" of the Cleveland Press, the last of Cleveland's daily afternoon newspapers. The Cleveland Press was published from 1878 until 1982.

Cleveland State University Music Department Performance Tapes
A collection 368 of audio tapes of programs sponsored by the Music Department of Cleveland State University. Performances by faculty, students and performing ensembles, 1965-1980

Cleveland Union Terminal Collection
The Cleveland Union Terminal Collection is the archives of the company that built the Terminal Tower, the union passenger station, the complex of office buildings, post office, department store and the infrastructure of tracks, bridges, signals, electrical catenary structures and yard facility buildings necessary to switch passenger coaches over from steam to electric and bring them in to the downtown area. This was a massive urban redevelopment project that foreshadowed the Rockefeller Center, in New York; gave Clevaland the second-tallest building in the world in 1930; and forever changed the face of Public Square and wide swaths of adjoining neighborhoods.

Euclid Avenue Baptist Church Collection

Faragher Collection
Approximately 1,000 glass plate negatives and prints from the Faragher Construction Company and the Fairmount Nurseries, two companies in Cleveland in the early part of this century.

Gerald Adams Railroad Photography Collection

Great Lakes Industrial History Collection
The Great Lakes Industrial History Collection provides a resource where the public can gain an appreciation for the efforts and accomplishments of business and industry which led to the opening of the Great Lakes and the industrial development of adjacent regions and where visitors are inspired to continue the pursuit of inventiveness, ingenuity, and excellence.

Herbert Elwell Collection
Herbert Elwell, composer, critic, and teacher, was an important figure in Cleveland's musical scene. The archive is comprised of the composer's scores, discs, reel-to-reel tapes, manuscripts, articles, program annotations for the Cleveland Orchestra, and assorted letters and memorabilia.

James J. Nance Papers
Personal and professional papers of James J. Nance, local businessman and former chairman of the CSU Board of Trustees.

Lake Shore Electric Collection

Montage Film Collection
A filmed history of the 60's and 70's with a Cleveland perspective.

Mystery Photo Album
A collection of 49 images from an early private photo album, showing scenes along the Cuyahoga River and Ohio Canal.

Naef & Joslin Photography Collection
A series of photographs of the of the bulk material handling equipment and other features at the port of Conneaut in 1900.

Newburgh & South Shore Railroad Collection
Includes hundreds of rolled drawings showing track plans, valuation maps and facilities drawings.

Nickel Plate Railroad Collections
Special Collections holds several collection about the Nickel Plate Railroad, consisting of files, drawings and images of the railroad, especially as it passes through Cleveland.

Northern Ohio Urban Systems (NOUS) Collection
Maps and reports about this major urban plan of the 1970s. NOUS was a major urban planning project developed by a group of leading Cleveland businesses and headed by Mr. Herbert E. Strawbridge, of Higbees Department Store.

Ray Osrin's Editorial Cartoons
Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial Cartoonist.

Sacred Landmarks Initiative Archives

Steamer William G. Mather Collection
Operational documents from 1925 to 1984, with over 400 photographs and slides.

Thomas L. Lewis Photographic Collection

Wilbur & Sara Ruth Watson Bridge Book Collection
Over one hundred and seventy-five rare books, some dating from the eighteenth century, and fifteen albums of photographs on historic bridges. The collection is considered one of the best of its kind in the country.

Wheeling & Lake Erie Collection

Dr. William O. & Naomi E. Walker Collection
More than four hundred books are included in this collection of Afro-American literature.