Archives and Special Collections in the Madlyn L. Hanes Library at Penn State Harrisburg is located on the 3rd floor of the library (Room 303).  Designed as part of the library, which opened in January 2000, the repository is comprised of over 4,100 square feet, including a 1,600-square foot Reading Room that can accommodate individual readers/researchers as well as students and faculty in programs at Penn State Harrisburg.      

Featuring its premier and largest archival resource, the Alice K. Marshall Women's History Collection, as well as the Pennsylvania Center for Folklore Collection, the archives is also proud to preserve the history of Penn State Harrisburg in the College History Archives.  The Penn State Harrisburg College History Archives (CHA) documents the college's academic community and campus life since 1966.  The archives also maintains several other small archival collections, including the Herb Field Papers and Patriot-News Editorials, Lena A. Girolami Collection, Fred M. Greguras Camp Meade Collection, Holocaust and Jewish Studies Collection, J. Randall Plummer Photography Collection, Three Mile Island Collection, and a small collection of special interest materials.

Collection Strengths

In addition to collecting and preserving Penn State Harrisburg's history, collections and primary source materials in the repository are strong in the following areas, which are listed alphabetically below:  

• American photography, including examples in the J. Randall Plummer Collection, and over 2,000 photographs of Steelton, Pennsylvania in the Pennsylvania Center for Folklore Collection
• Camp George Gordon Meade during the Spanish-American War of 1898 in the Fred M. Greguras Camp Meade Collection
• History of Middletown, Highspire, and Steelton, Pennsylvania, as well as the surrounding communities of Elizabethtown, Harrisburg, Hershey, Hummelstown, and Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania in the Special Interest Collection
• Oral histories of Harrisburg-area Holocaust survivors, liberators, and witnesses during World War II in the Holocaust and Jewish Studies Collection.  Please note that the oral histories are currently being transcribed and not yet online.  To view videos of most of these oral histories, please visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's website at https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn42133.  
• Three Mile Island (TMI) and the popular reactions to the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history in the Three Mile Island Collection
• Women's history, especially the history of woman suffrage in America and England in the Alice K. Marshall Women's History Collection

Mission Statement

Archival and historical collections of primary sources are integral to learning throughout life.  They document the ideas, creativity, and lives of people and organizations and provide a glimpse into history. 

In accordance with the Penn State University Libraries’ Policy UL-SP03, the mission of Archives and Special Collections is to appraise, acquire, make accessible, preserve, and promote specialized research collections that support the College’s academic curriculum and document the history of Penn State Harrisburg.  Toward this end, Archives and Special Collections supports research and lifelong learning for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the general public through various educational and outreach initiatives such as archival workshops, student internships, and in-library and online exhibition programs. 

Archives and Special Collections is committed to serving an instrumental role in fulfilling the mission of the Madlyn L. Hanes Library as well as the overall missions of the Penn State University Libraries and Penn State Harrisburg.

Vision Statement

By December 2030, Archives and Special Collections in the Madlyn L. Hanes Library will—with robust staffing capacity, streamlined workflows, diverse collections, new partnerships, and responsive reader services—become a model for sustainable archival stewardship in the southcentral Pennsylvania region.  As the second-largest repository in the Penn State University Libraries, the archives will strengthen collaborations with the Eberly Family Special Collections Library at University Park, implement strategies that facilitate user access to primary sources, and offer educational and outreach programming that enriches the Penn State Harrisburg curriculum, campus, and community.  In addition to preserving the documentary memory of Penn State Harrisburg, Archives and Special Collections will continue to sustain existing community partnerships and explore new ways of learning that engage visitors and researchers with the repository’s primary sources and unique cultural heritage materials. 

Strategic Plan (2025-2030)

The faculty and staff in Archives and Special Collections are currently drafting a new strategic plan to guide our work through December 2030.  Please stay tuned for an update!