The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) is the principal repository for and steward of Temple University Libraries’ rare books, manuscripts, archives and University records. We collect, preserve, and make accessible primary resources and rare or unique materials, so as to stimulate, enrich, and support research, teaching, learning, and administration at Temple University and beyond.
First time visitors should create an SCRC Researcher Account. To do that follow this link and click on either “Temple University Affiliates” or "Non-Temple Affilates." You’ll need this account in order to request materials for your own research in the future.
Archival Collections and Photographs
Contemporary Culture Collection Periodicals
The Contemporary Culture Collection (CCC) Periodicals consist of over 5,500 titles of alternative, underground, activist, and radical newspapers, magazines, journal, newsletters, pamphlets, and zines that reflect contemporary issues, movements, and trends. Little magazines, chapbooks, and poetry and literary journals produced by primarily American and Canadian small press publishers, are also included in the collection.
The periodicals document a broad range of subject areas including social and liberation movements; political organizations of the far left and right; ecology, energy and environmental advocacy; human and animal rights; citizen action and consumer groups; migrant labor and workers’ rights; war, pacifism, and nuclear disarmament; prison reform; student activism; drug culture and underground music scenes; experimental and avant garde art; minorities and oppressed people; collectives and communal living; radical approaches to health care and education; and fringe religious sects, among other topics.
Particular areas of strength include materials pertaining to activist groups organized by and supporting people of color including the Black Power movement; feminism and women’s liberation; socialism; and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other marginalized sexualities and gender identities) authors and communities. The bulk of the periodicals are published in the United States. Canada, England, and other countries are also well represented.
Digitized Collections
Digitize photographs from our collection can be found here. The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Photographs, the Housing Association of The Delaware Valley Photographs, the City Parks Association Photographs, and the The NAACP, Philadelphia Branch Records are good starting places for historical photographs of the Philadelphia and the surrounding region.
Photographs from various collections can also be found as part of our Civil Rights in a Northern City website.
Newspaper Clippings and Photographs
The clipping and photograph files of the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and the Philadelphia Inquirer are great resources for getting up to speed on how a particular topic was covered in the popular press at the time. You can search by subject (“Puerto Ricans” or “Germantown”) or personal names, ("Frank Rizzo").
For a tutorial on how to request news clippings and photographs see this link
Secondary Sources and Non-Temple Materials
For help locating secondary sources, search terms, or subject headings, I recommend contacting your subject specialist Jill Leudke.
The Greater Philadelphia GeoHistory Network has digitized version of Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, and many others, which you can layer over Google Maps using their Interactive Maps Viewer.
Philadelphia Architects and Buildings is another great resource
