AUC University Archives

AUC University Archives Mission and Functions

The University Archives serves as the repository for materials documenting AUC’s history and contributions, serving administrative needs and facilitating research by internal and external scholars. Activities pursued include acquiring, preserving, and providing access to records, publications, oral histories, and other material of historical value (including archival collections related to Egypt’s heritage), supported by the efforts of AUC Records Management. The University Archives’ functions include the following:

• Acquires records, publications, and other material of historical value that document the operations and life of the university.
• Preserves archival holdings by providing secure, climate-controlled conditions, conservation treatment, and appropriate archival storage supplies.
• Ensures, through AUC Records Management operations, that records generated by university units are retained for as long as necessary for administrative, legal, financial purposes; stored securely; retrieved efficiently; and disposed of or transferred to permanent custody as appropriate.
• Describes and arranges archival materials to facilitate researcher access and establish administrative control.
• Provides reference services to meet the needs of researchers at the university (administrators, staff, faculty, students) and beyond the AUC community. 
• Supports teaching and learning at AUC and beyond through student use of primary sources related to AUC history.
• Offers instruction in using its holdings, through presentations to classes and other groups as well as individual assistance to new users.
• Permits the university to draw upon its heritage, via outreach efforts like publications and events, in order to connect with its students, alumni, faculty, staff, administrators, and the wider public beyond the AUC community.
• Promotes awareness about the American University in Cairo’s history through presentations and exhibitions.
• Assists university offices in handling inactive records, through AUC Records Management guidance on how long to keep records, records center storage, and records disposal services.

As early as 1947 AUC administrators expressed interest in the preservation AUC’s historical records; in September of that year President Emeritus Charles R. Watson wrote his successor John Badeau of his “hope that someday we might have a full time historically minded Librarian who would add to his duties the conservation of such material and other that he would collect.”

By the late 1960s records from the office of the president were being transferred to the AUC library, but concerted action toward the creation of university archives began with the arrival of Visiting Assistant Professor Lawrence R. Murphy, a historian, in 1972.  With the goal of writing a book-length history of the American University in Cairo, Murphy undertook a survey of university records and publications “currently scattered across the campus,” including the rooftops of university buildings

Having assembled those materials in the library in Hill House, in 1972 and 1973 Murphy proposed to AUC’s administration developing official university archives with an ongoing collecting program, formal policies, and sufficient personnel. The library took steps in this direction, with the hiring of graduate assistants to work in a University Archives unit.  From 1975 through the early 1990s the library’s Special Services Department (later Special Collections Department) was responsible for the University Archives operations and holdings, kept in the new library building opened in 1982.

In 1992 the Special Collections Department merged with AUC’s Creswell Library to form the Rare Books and Special Collections Library (RBSCL), and that year the University Archives were moved to the library’s new facility in a restored 19th-century villa on Sheikh Rihan Street near Tahrir Square.  In 2007 a records management program under the administration of the University Archives was established. The University Archives moved into the RBSCL’s facilities in the library building on AUC’s New Cairo campus, in addition to Records Center facilities, in 2010.

AUC University Archives Holdings

AUC’s University Archives maintains a wide range of holdings, including records of AUC offices and departments, publications, photographs, historical reference collections, oral histories and audiovisual recordings, websites about AUC, faculty and alumni personal papers, and certain theses and student records.

Records of AUC Offices and Departments

The official records created by offices and personnel at AUC reflect the structure, development, and operations of the university and its units, and span the history of AUC from 1914 to the present. Types of documents typically found in the records include reports, external correspondence and internal memoranda, personnel files, financial documentation, and subject files. Records maintained by the University Archives include those of:

• Governing Bodies and Committees Board of Trustees, Administrative and Academic Committees, Ad Hoc Committees, etc.
• Administrative Offices and Services Units: President, Provost, Deans of Schools, Financial Officers, Student Affairs Offices, Fundraising Offices, Libraries, etc.
• Academic Departments and Research Centers: Departments across all disciplines, including predecessor units and defunct ones.

Publications

The University Archives contains items published by AUC dating from its founding era in the 1910s through the present.  The Archives actively collects publications produced in both printed form (housed at the University Archives) and digital format (available through AUC Knowledge Fountain repository and the Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library). Holdings include:

• Catalogs and directories
• Magazines, journals, and newsletters
• Promotional material for AUC and its various units
• Policies and procedures documents and handbooks
• Reports
• Event-related materials (such as commencement programs)
• Student publications like student newspapers (The Caravan) and yearbooks
• The material produced by student and faculty organizations, including reflecting causes and demonstrations
• Books published by the AUC Press

Photographs

The University Archives maintains a substantial photograph collection covering the people, places, and events of AUC from the 1920s through the present day. These prints, negatives, and digital images depict:   

• AUC’s campus and buildings
• Classroom teaching and other academic pursuits
• Student life, including activities and organizations, social settings, and athletics
• Alumni
• Faculty, staff, and administrators across the university and its units
• Ceremonial events such as commencement, awards, inaugurations, and commemorations
• Social events, meetings, and demonstrations
• The arts at AUC, including theater and musical performances, and exhibitions
• Visits by prominent individuals in the arts, academia, business, government, religion, and other fields, as well as lectures and conferences

Historical Reference Collections

Several collections, assembled from various sources, offer reference material on the history of AUC. These include:

• Historical Writings and Articles: Contents range from short written reminiscences to articles and theses about the development of AUC to the published and typescript versions of Lawrence Murphy’s book The American University in Cairo: 1919-1987.
• Subject Files: Contain material on various topics related to AUC history, such as AUC during times of war, women at AUC, and the university logo.
• Biographical Files: Files on significant individuals at AUC throughout its history.
• Oral History Transcripts: Transcripts of interviews conducted with AUC administrators, faculty, staff, alumni, and students in the late 1960s and early 1970s and from 2005 to the present day.
• Campus and Buildings Files: Include documents (reports, inauguration programs, news clippings, etc.) on the acquisition, planning, construction, locations, and other aspects of the university’s campuses and buildings.
• Newspaper and Magazines Clippings: Extensive chronological files containing newspaper and magazine articles covering AUC, dating from 1916 to the present day.

Oral Histories and Audiovisual Recordings

The University Archives holds sound and motion image recordings depicting life and events at AUC throughout its history.  Recordings are available in digital form (many available through the Rare Books and Special Collections Digital Library),  recorded digitally or digitized from original VHS, audiocassette, reel-to-reel film or other analog media.

• Oral History interview Recordings: Oral history interviews conducted with AUC administrators, faculty, staff, alumni, and students are available as digital audio files.  The interviews, conducted in the late 1960s and early 1970s and since 2005, cover aspects of the university such as the development of its academic programs, its administration, physical setting, and student life.
• Promotional and historic films about AUC: In addition to some film footage dating to the 1930s, the Archives contains a number of promotional films produced by AUC between the 1960s and 1980s.
• Events at the university: Ranging from ceremonies like commencements and memorial services, to visits by prominent speakers, to arts performances and student activities - are documented by video and audio recordings.  Most of these date from the mid-1980s through the early 2000s.

Websites About AUC

The Web Archive at AUC contains archived versions of the official AUC website dating back to 2009.  Blogs, social media sites, and other websites related to the university are also collected.

Faculty and Alumni Personal Papers

The Archives maintains personal papers collections of a number of AUC faculty members. The collections include those contributed by prominent scholars in disciplines such as anthropologist Cynthia Nelson, sociologist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, physicist Salah Arafa, and Islamic Art and Architecture scholar George Scanlon. Collections of AUC Alumni whose papers are maintained by the Rare Books and Special Collections Library include those of activist Aziza Hussein and photographer Van-Leo.

See Donating to RBSCL for details on donating faculty and alumni personal papers collections to the Library.

Theses and Dissertations and Student Records

The University Archives holds a collection of undergraduate theses written between 1940 and 1968, but most theses and dissertations produced by AUC students are housed outside of the University Archives:

• Master’s degree theses for the program in Islamic Art and Architecture are kept in the Rare Books and Special Collections Library open stacks and are available through AUC Knowledge Fountain repository.
• Master’s and PhD Theses in all other disciplines are available in digital form through AUC Knowledge Fountain repository. 
• Student-related material is contained in many University Archives collections, but official student records like transcripts are the responsibility of the Office of the Registrar, whose contact information is available on the AUC website. Documentation related to various academic programs should be requested from department offices.  The University Archives can provide copies of course and program descriptions from the university catalog as well as lists of graduates from commencement programs.

AUC University Archives Access to Records

Records are open for research, subject to the following access conditions:

• Records of AUC offices, departments, and other units are closed to researchers for 15 years from the date they were created.
• Records of AUC’s Board of Trustees, such as meeting minutes, are closed for 25 years from the date of creation.
• Personnel Records (such as a personnel file) are closed for research for 50 years after the employee’s departure from AUC.
• Student Records are primarily in custody of AUC’s Office of the Registrar, but for other student records University Archives and AUC Records Management staff act in accordance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act of 1974/1976 (FERPA), limiting access to the education records of living students or living former students to that student (upon written request), with restrictions lifted 75 years after their departure from the university.
• AUC publications, photographs, oral histories, websites, and reference materials are all open for use.