WSU Libraries
The WSU Libraries, with more than 6 million items, are an integral part of the university's educational resources. The Libraries, with locations on all WSU campuses, receive more than 30,000 serials publications, including scholarly and scientific journals and periodicals; regional and national newspapers; government documents; and materials in print, electronic, multimedia, and micro-formats.
The Libraries provide an online catalog, Griffin, for WSU resources. Patrons also have access to the resources of more than 30 Northwest academic libraries through the Summit catalog and online request service. In addition, the Libraries provide Web access to varied electronic indexes and abstracts and thousands of full-text electronic books and journals.
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections contain rich collections of primary resource materials including books, manuscripts, and photographs.
Museums and Collections
The Museum of Anthropology is one of the major repositories for archaeological collections in the Northwest. Most of these collections are from federal and state lands in eastern Washington and the Cedar Mesa Region of Utah. The collections represent important research and teaching resources for WSU as well as others. The collections are also important to the local American Indian tribes. There is an exhibit area on the first floor of College Hall.
The Museum of Art was established in 1973 around a core collection of American paintings assembled by former WSU President E. O. Holland and former WSU Regent Charles Orton. The museum’s permanent collection has grown through donations and important gifts from collectors and alumni. The museum presents changing exhibitions of fine art. Exhibitions originated by museum staff tour the nation. The museum also offers exhibit openings, docent tours, children’s workshops, lectures and other events.
WSU's collection of outdoor art can be found in many different locations on campus and can be enjoyed singly or during a walking tour with a docent. Pieces range from Jim Dine's "Technicolor Heart" on Stadium Way to Terry Allen's "Bookin'" in front of the Holland and Terrell Libraries to "Palouse Columns" by Robert Maki and sited near McCroskey Hall.
The Charles R. Conner Museum, located on the first floor of Abelson Hall, exhibits fishes, amphibians, reptiles, a dinosaur skeleton, and several hundred mounted birds and mammals, including deer, antelope, mountain sheep, mountain goat, moose, caribou, cougar, and small species. Its namesake was a president of the Board of Regents who, in 1894, persuaded the state of Washington to donate its exhibits from the Chicago World's Fair to the fledgling Washington Agricultural College and School of Science.
WSU has three geology museum displays in the Webster Physical Sciences Building. The Jacklin Collection has more than 2,000 cut and polished specimens of petrified wood and minerals from all major localities in the western U.S. and is the largest display of its kind in the U.S. West. The 150 beautiful specimens in the McCaw Collection are displayed under different wavelengths of fluorescent light. And the Culver Study Memorial presents an array of rock and mineral specimens as well as skulls of a dire wolf skull and of a saber-tooth cat.
The Historic Costume and Textile Collection is held by the Department of Apparel, Merchandising, Design and Textiles. It contains some 3,000 items of women’s, children’s and men’s clothing and costume accessories from 1835 to the present, plus quilts, woven coverlets and a number of ethnic textiles and costumes from around the world. The department also has the Minnie Barstow Drucker Memorial Collection of Oriental Art with oriental furniture, textiles, costumes and art. The late Arthur Eilert Drucker gave the collection to WSU in 1944 in memory of his wife. For details, contact the department.
The Maurice T. James Entomological Collection, one of the largest insect collections in the Pacific Northwest, has more than 1.25 million insect specimens and an extensive library. Primarily of regional significance, the collection also has considerable material from the New World tropics, eastern North America, and Asia. The collection provides specimens on loan to recognized scientists worldwide, offers identification services to university extension entomologists, and is a repository of type specimens and other materials. Public tours and interpretive presentations for groups can be arranged.
The Mycological
Herbarium is located in the Department of
Plant Pathology in Johnson Hall, third floor. Founded
in 1915 by Frederick D. Heald, the
department's first chairman, it now has more
than 70,000 specimens of fungi from all the major
groups from slime molds and true molds to larger,
fleshy mushrooms. Parasitic fungi of northwestern North
America are emphasized, but materials of all groups
from all over the world are included. Loans are
available to individuals associated with recognized
botanical institutions. Specialists wishing to utilize
the facilities of the Mycological Herbarium are welcome
by prior arrangement.
The Marion Ownbey
Herbarium, located in Heald Hall, Room G-9, houses
358,000 preserved plant specimens, primarily from the
Pacific Northwest but including worldwide collections.
In addition to native vascular plants and weeds, the
herbarium contains mosses, liverworts, lichens, seeds
and cultivated plants. The herbarium is open daily to
the public. Check for hours and
directions. Staff provide assistance to persons
wanting to identify and learn about plants. Facilities
include a small reference library. Our Web site has
local plant lists and educational programs.
The Henry W. Smith Soil Monolith Collection has more than 150 preserved soil profiles, some as much as eight feet in length, representing soils from all of the geographic regions in Washington and ten of the 12 soil orders in Soil Taxonomy. Particularly well represented are soils of the Palouse region and of eastern and central Washington with layers of volcanic ash from prehistoric and historic eruptions of the Cascade region volcanoes. It is the work of Henry W. Smith, WSU emeritus professor of soils. A valuable resource for the Department of Crop and Soil Sciences, the collection is in Johnson Hall, Room 114, and may be viewed from an observation window any time the building is open. Those wishing to tour the collection should contact the department.
Persona
Washington State University's extensive collection of outdoor art includes this kinetic wind sculpture by Doug Hollis. "Persona" is found atop the Terrell Library.