Archives at CLP-Main: Additional Resources

This guide provides an overview of collections held in the Archives at CLP-Main.

Archival Resources

Archive Stories

This provocative collection initiates a vital conversation about how archives around the world are constructed, policed, manipulated, and experienced. It challenges the claims to objectivity associated with the traditional archive by telling stories that illuminate its power to shape the narratives that are “found” there.

Creating Family Archives

Creating Family Archives is a book written by an archivist for you, your family, and friends, taking you step-by-step through the process of arranging and preserving your own family archives.

The Unofficial Family Archivist

This book focuses on the care of personal papers, photographs, and memorabilia found in the typical home. Written for individuals who hope to protect family history, this book provides everything an unofficial archivist needs to ensure materials that connect us with our past are available for future generations.

The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Women

These remarkable narratives illuminate a diverse regional culture held together by the threads that are woven between women and place, and through generations.

Black Archives

Black Archives is a stunning collection of timeless images that tell powerful, joyful stories of everyday life and shed light on Black culture's dynamic, enduring influence through the generations.

The Humanity Archive

This sweeping survey of Black history shows how Black humanity has been erased and how its recovery can save the humanity of us all. Using history as a foundation, The Humanity Archive uses storytelling techniques to make history come alive and uncover the truth behind America's whitewashed history.

Dark Archives

In Dark Archives, Megan Rosenbloom seeks out the historic and scientific truths behind anthropodermic bibliopegy―the practice of binding books in this most intimate covering. Dozens of such books live on in the world’s most famous libraries and museums. Dark Archives exhumes their origins and brings to life the doctors, murderers, and indigents whose lives are sewn together in this disquieting collection.

Through the Archival Looking Glass

Through the Archival Looking Glass: A Reader on Diversity and Inclusion, edited by Mary A. Caldera and Kathryn M. Neal, features ten essays that explore prominent themes related to diversity, including creating a diverse record, recruiting diversity to the profession and retaining a diverse workforce, and questioning the archive itself, on representation, authority, neutrality, objectivity, and power.

Archives in Fiction

The Lost Apothecary

With crackling suspense, unforgettable characters and searing insight, The Lost Apothecary is a subversive and intoxicating debut novel of secrets, vengeance and the remarkable ways women can save each other despite the barrier of time.

The Love Songs of W. E. B. du Bois

To come to terms with her own identity, Ailey embarks on a journey through her family's past, uncovering the shocking tales of generations of ancestors--Indigenous, Black, and white--in the deep South. In doing so Ailey must learn to embrace her full heritage, a legacy of oppression and resistance, bondage and independence, cruelty and resilience that is the story--and the song--of America itself.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore

The Great Recession has shuffled Clay Jannon away from life as a San Francisco web-design drone and into the aisles of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. But after a few days on the job, Clay discovers that the store is more curious than either its name or its gnomic owner might suggest.

Truly Devious

When Stevie Bell, an amateur detective, begins her first year at a famous private school in Vermont, she sets a plan to solve the cold case involving the kidnapping of the founder's wife and daughter shortly after the school opened.

The Librarian of Crooked Lane: The Glass Library, Book 1

A librarian with a mysterious past, a war hero with a secret, and the heist of a magic painting.

Collections at CLP Branches

Allegheny City Historic Reading Room Located at CLP-Allegheny the Reading Room holds a collection of rare materials dedicated to the history of Allegheny City and the North Side. Please contact CLP-Allegheny for more details at 412-237-1890 or email allegheny@carnegielibrary.org.
Hill District Community Collection, 1925-2018 The Hill District Community Collection contains materials that document life in Pittsburgh's Hill District throughout the 1900s, into the early 2000s. Materials document Black history in the Hill District, in Pittsburgh, in Pennsylvania, and throughout the United States. Materials include (but not limited to) books, newspaper clippings, newspapers, photographs,and other ephemera originating from the community or related to its history. The Hill District Community collection is openly accessible and can be accessed at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh-Hill District during their open hours without an appointment. The collection is housed in a file cabinet in the August Wilson Room. Books, newspapers, and other ephemera can be located in the top drawer of the file cabinet. File folders are located in the bottom drawer.
Historic Lawrenceville Oral History Collection Stories from our neighbors, collected in collaboration with the Lawrenceville Historical Society. Content is viewable online.
South Side Local Development Corporation Archive CLP – South Side houses the South Side Local Development Corporation Archive (SSLDC.) The SSLDC was a community-based non-profit corporation whose purpose was to promote the economic revitalization and historic preservation of Pittsburgh’s South Side. The SSLDC facilitated responsible business, recreational, residential and workforce development and provided direction, skills and technical assistance to other community groups and individuals for the benefit of the South Side. This collection contains grants, materials, reports, meeting minutes, project planning, drawings and photographs pertaining to the organization’s 30 years of operation (1982-2012.) Please contact CLP-South Side for more details at 412-431-0505 or southside@carnegielibrary.org.
West End Historical Collection Built in 1899, CLP – West End received historic designation from the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation in 2015. It is credited with holding the first children’s storytime in Pittsburgh and possibly the country. This archive was established in 2015 and is not traditional. Some of the materials are copies of original documents. The collection was organized with the intent to aid and inform researchers about this neighborhood. Please contact CLP-West End for more details at 412-921-1717 or email westend@carnegielibrary.org.

Local History & Genealogy Resources

Genealogy Library Guide This guide provides an overview of library resources that can help with genealogy and family history searching.
Local History Collections The Local History Department is housed on the third floor of CLP-Main and specializes in local history and genealogy research.
Pittsburgh Photographic Library (PPL) The Pittsburgh Photographic Library (PPL) is a unique collection of historic images documenting life in the Pittsburgh area accessible at CLP-Main. A project of the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, its purpose was to highlight the redevelopment of Pittsburgh in the 1950s. The collection has grown in size and scope since coming to Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh in 1960. The PPL now offers over 57,000 photographs featuring important Western Pennsylvania places, significant milestones and extraordinary people.
Historical Maps of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania This collection includes maps showing the development of the City of Pittsburgh and other areas in Western Pennsylvania. The collection also includes warrantee atlases documenting early landowners, which are helpful in genealogical research.

Please contact the Local History & Genealogy Department for additional details at 412-622-3154 or padept@carnegielibrary.org.

Music Collections

Music Special Collections The Pittsburgh Music Collections include historical material related to music groups, music organizations and societies, music educators, conductors, composers and musicians in Pittsburgh and the surrounding area. Collections include vinyl records, original correspondence, music manuscripts, concert programs, oral histories, records, newspaper clippings, photographs, CDs, sheet music, scrapbooks, and much more. These collections are housed in the Music Department at CLP-Main.
The Maurice Levy Oral History of Music in Pittsburgh Collection The collection consists of more than 300 interviews conducted between 1991 and 2005. The interviews include a wide variety of people in Pittsburgh involved with jazz, classical, popular, folk, and traditional music.

Please contact the Music Department for more details at 412-622-3114 or email musicdept@carnegielibrary.org.

Reference Collections at CLP-Main

Pittsburgh Art and Architecture Collections This collection contains index cards with art events, architecture, and names of artists and architects. These point to associated references in books or files with catalogs, mounted pictures, magazine and newspaper clippings, and other ephemera unique to CLP. Coverage is strongest between 1920 to 2000. This resource includes full runs of the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh Annual Exhibition Catalogs and Carnegie International Exhibition Catalogs.
Topographic Maps Pennsylvania topographic maps and a limited number of topographic maps of various scales for locations around the United States are available.
Zines Collection (1st Floor Fiction Stacks) Housed on the first floor of CLP-Main, the library’s Zine collection provides browsing access to nearly 2000 independently-published comics, essays, collages, and other materials. Named after the “zine” in “magazine”, a zine can take a variety of forms but is usually a pamphlet of creative work, published in small photocopied print runs. Because the format focuses on expression, not profit, zines often touch on personal or socially radical topics. CLP’s collection features zines from around the world but focuses on zines and zinesters of local interest.

Please contact the Reference Services Department at CLP-Main in-person or you can contact the library at 412-622-3114 or email info@carnegielibrary.org.

Recollection Studio

DIY Digitization Lab Appointments
The Recollection Studio supports the effective use and application of digitization technology to preserve cultural heritage materials through a Do-It-Yourself model. The dedicated space provides hardware, software, and documentation to digitize VHS tapes, audio cassette tapes, documents, photographs, slides, and negatives.

Questions? Contact the Recollection Studio at Recollectionstudio@carnegielibrary.org.

Rare Books and Special Collections

Rare Books and Special Collections
The Rare Books and Special Collections Department holds over 16,000 items including valuable and historically significant materials, such as first editions, limited editions, fine bindings, early printed books, local history resources, maps, photographs, and more.

Collections are particularly strong in American History and Literature, Architecture, Travel and Exploration, Religion and Philosophy, and Early Printing.

Digital Collections

Digital Collections
Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh digitizes material from its collections in order to create greater access to them. This page will help you locate those digital collections and learn how to access them.