Grand Valley State University Digital Collections database contains a selection of photographs, correspondence, diaries, interviews, and publications from the holdings of the Libraries’ Special Collections & University Archives, and other University entities. This resource makes unique or rare materials from GVSU collections available electronically to students, faculty, administrators, researchers, and the general public. Collections offer full text search, browse, zoom and pan, and side by side comparison of documents and transcriptions. This project is a work-in-progress. Collections are added as they become available.

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Civil War & Slavery Collection Diaries of a surgeon, an artillery officer, and a fruit farmer; correspondence between government officials and a Whig political appointee; slavery documents, and other Civil War era personal and political correspondence.

GVSU Photographs People, places, and events of Grand Valley State University from its founding in 1960 as a 4-year college in western Michigan.

GVSU Publications Publications created by and for the students, faculty, and administration of Grand Valley State College (1960-1987) and Grand Valley State University (1987-present).

Veterans History Project Interviews with veterans from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, conflicts in the Middle East, and other veterans and civilians collected by the GVSU History Department begun in conjunction with the Library of Congress.

Incunabula & 16th Century Printing Books, single sheets, or images printed in Europe before the year 1501; and highlights of volumes printed in the 1500s.

Fore-Edge Paintings Miniature watercolors executed on the fanned edges of a book that disappear when the book is closed. This genre of painting dates from the 1500s and flourished in the 1800s.

Mathias J. Alten Photographs and personal papers from one of Michigan’s most significant painters, Mathias J. Alten (1871-1938), are combined with images of Alten paintings owned by the University.