Friends Collection and College Archives: Policies

Please see the "Research and Reproduction Fees" tab for more information on photocopying and digitization services and fees.

Earlham College Archives collects:

1. Records and other materials relating to Indiana Yearly Meeting and Western Yearly Meeting (Orthodox or Friends United Meeting) and Northern Yearly Meeting.
2. Records and other materials relating to Friends United Meeting (formerly the Five Years Meeting of Friends).
3. Materials relating to the history of Earlham College and the Earlham School of Religion.
4. Materials relating to the history of Richmond, Indiana, and adjacent areas.  Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond is a good starting point to discover Richmond archival material.
5. Materials relating to the life and history of Quakers in the Midwest.
6. Quaker genealogical material, published and unpublished.
7. Quaker publications of all kinds, including books, pamphlets, periodicals, and yearly meeting minutes.

Some of our policies may contrast with the policies of Lilly Library as a whole. Our hours are different, and we do not allow food or drink in the archives. Many of our items cannot be used outside the reading room. If you need copies from a rare book or manuscript collection, we will make them for you. Why?

Our hours are more limited as we have two professional archivists available for reference and research help during the day and occasional evening/weekend hours. Student workers help keep our archives open on the weekend and weekday evenings for limited research help. We wish we could be open more extensively, but with a professional staff of two it simply is not possible. If you have a class project that might require using primary sources, it is best to plan in advance!

Archives materials are valuable and often unique items, which is why we need to keep the Archives locked and secure after hours. Our rare books and manuscript collections must be used within our cozy reading room so they do not accidentally get lost. Many of our older items are brittle and must be handled carefully. If something happens to our rare books or manuscripts, they cannot be replaced. Consistent with Earlham's principles and practices, we put a high level of trust into our student workers and the Earlham community by allowing backpacks into the reading room and not requiring researchers to show identification. We do require a registration form that we use to keep records.

Rare items will be photocopied by archives staff so as to help better preserve them. Sometimes, if you use a particularly rare book or handle photographs, we may ask you to use white gloves for preservation purposes.

Food and drink is NOT allowed due to crumbs attracting various critters. Sightings have included silverfish, cockroaches, ants, and salamanders. Please help us preserve our unique materials!