Archives and Special Collections is comprised of ten regionally- and nationally-significant primary resource collections, including the following:
 

Alice K. Marshall Women's History Collection (AMC) is the repository's premier and largest archival resource.  It is considered one of the largest, privately-compiled research collections on women’s history in the country.  

Penn State Harrisburg College History Archives (CHA) documents the college's history from 1966 to the present and features materials about pre-Penn State Harrisburg's history such as the Olmsted Air Force Base (1948-1966).

Pennsylvania Center for Folklore Collection includes folklore materials from across the state, region, and nation. It includes the John Yetter Collection of Steelton, Pennsylvania, with over 2,000 photographs of Steelton, an ethnic-industrial community known for the Bethlehem Steel Company.

Lena A. Girolami Collection provides an intimate view of life as a woman serving in the U.S. military during World War II.  Ms. Girolami (1920-1999) was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) during World War II from 1943-1945, and the collection includes her military uniform, photographs, documents, and even her military dog tag.

Fred M. Greguras Camp Meade Collection focuses on "Camp Meade" during the Spanish-American War of 1898.  Camp Meade was located on the site of present-day Penn State Harrisburg.

Herb Field Papers is comprised of editorials, columns, and articles written by Mr. Charles ("Herb") Herbert Field, Jr., and published in The Patriot-News, the largest newspaper that serves the Harrisburg metropolitan area. 

Holocaust and Jewish Studies Collection consists of seven, distinct archival resources including the Harrisburg-Area Holocaust Oral History Collection, as well as the papers and records of Harrisburg-area Holocaust survivors, such as the Linda Schwab Papers, Toni Klar Collection, and the Samuel and Kay Freiberg Papers.

J. Randall Plummer Photography Collection is a small collection of museum-quality, fine art photographic prints that span the early 1850s to the late 1970s.  They are used as a teaching collection for students to learn about the history of early and modern photography in America.

Special Interest Collection features over 400 unique publications, including rare and limited printings of books about Middletown and several surrounding communities, including Elizabethtown, Harrisburg, Hershey, Highspire, Hummelstown, Mount Gretna, Paxtang, and Steelton, Pennsylvania. 

Three Mile Island Collection is an eclectic mix of rare artifacts, books, paper ephemera, newspapers, publications, t-shirts, and technical reports related to the 1979 Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident and its aftermath in the surrounding communities within southcentral Pennsylvania.