University Archives
About Wake Forest University Archives
Special Collections & Archives in the ZSR Library maintains the University Archives which serves as the primary repository for the historical records of Wake Forest University. The University Archives collects, describes, preserves and exhibits university records that contain historical, administrative, legal, or fiscal value. The records include documentation of the student experience, departmental records, and the papers of faculty and alumni.
The University Archives includes papers of the school’s presidents; official records of academic and administrative departments, faculty committees, student organizations, and libraries; minutes from Board of Trustees meetings; theses and dissertations; and photographs. University Archives also maintains collections of official university and student publications, biography files on alumni and faculty, and news clippings files.
An outline of the record groups in the Wake Forest University Archives and a list of items accepted and declined are also available.
Finding aids and inventories provide more detailed information about University Archives. Many of these finding aids are available online. A few collections do not yet have electronic finding aids; paper indexes for these collections are available in the Special Collections Department.
Selected Collections
Digital reproductions of books held in the Special Collections & Archives of Z. Smith Reynolds Library at Wake Forest University.
This oral history collection (2013-ongoing) consists of audio and video interviews conducted by Z. Smith Reynolds Library’s Special Collections & Archives and other university departments and programs.
Over 100 years of Wake Forest yearbooks available online via DigitalNC.org
Digital copies of Wake Forest University’s Old Gold and Black student newspaper. Issues span from 1916 through 2007.
10 years of The Student, the Wake Forest literary magazine, available online via DigitalNC.org
This photograph collection covers Wake Forest University’s deep history. It captures images of people, places and events dating back as early as 1881.
Over 100 years of Wake Forest catalogues and bulletins available online via DigitalNC.org
Over 100 years of Wake Forest commencement programs available online via DigitalNC.org
Digital copies of Wake Forest University Magazine publications from 1928 to 1998.
WFU Web Archive
As part of a concerted effort to help preserve the history of the University, Special Collections & Archives is using Archive-It to capture the websites that are integral in telling the academic, administrative, and social activity and history of Wake Forest University.
Search the WFU Website Archive ›
Reviewed every three years (2024)