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The Archives & Special Collections

Preserving the history and legacy of Rollins College, Winter Park, and the Central Florida community.

Our Collections

Researchers, dive into Rollins and Winter Park history with primary source materials in our physical and digital collections.

Archive at Rollins College (ARC)

A database of finding aids for physical holdings, including collection descriptions, scope and contents with box and folder inventories. Read the ARC User Guide for search strategies.

Search ARC

Browse Online & Other Collections

Search and/or filter through a list of online (digitized) or other physical collections that can be found in the College Archives, spanning from Rollins history to Florida historical artifacts.

Browse These Collections

Rollins Scholarship Online

A platform for collecting, describing, organizing, and sharing works that document the scholarly, creative, and professional activities of Rollins faculty, staff, and students.

Search RSO

Read the Duplication Fee Schedule Policy for conditions governing reproduction and publication of physical collection materials.

Archives Collections Overview

Housed in the College Archives

Our holdings cover a wide range of physical and digital materials, including documents, manuscripts, photographs, audiovisual recordings, maps, architectural drawings, scrapbooks, newspapers, books, and more.

The College Archives, which serves as the institutional memory for Rollins, houses the permanent records of most of the College's administrative and academic offices, and those of faculty and student organizations. Alumni Relations, Health Services, Human Resources, and Student Records maintain their own permanent records. The Archives also collects College publications and maintains complete sets of its yearbook, the Tomokan, and the student newspaper, The Sandspur.

The Rollins Collection holds the published works of Rollins students, faculty, staff, and alumni, including the complete works of Rex Beach, a novelist and alumnus, and A.J. Hanna, a faculty member, college vice president, alumnus, and historian. Among the student writings are Honors Program and Master of Liberal Studies Program theses and selected research papers.

Created by A.J. Hanna, the Florida Collection consists of books, monographs, pamphlets, and maps related to the history of the state. Among the most prized items of the collection is Volume II of Theodore de Bry's America. Printed in 1591, it is one of the first published accounts of the lives of native Floridians.

Historical photographs are a rich resource for Rollins history. With photographs dating from the late 1800s to the present, the collection offers a wealth of visual documentation for the study of Rollins, Winter Park, and, more generally, Central Florida. The Department has the capability to provide photo-quality scanned images of items in the collection.

The Rare Book Collection includes early printed books and other printed materials, medieval works, early Florida titles, and volumes from the Day Library (the College’s first collection).

The Department holds the collections of William Sloane Kennedy, a writer and scholar, and a close friend of Walt Whitman. Through funds from a special endowment, the Department actively acquires scholarly publications on the lives and literatures of both Walt Whitman and William Sloane Kennedy.

Online Collections

The Archives continues to grow its online collections with selected digitized materials and “born-digital” materials, those originally created in digital form for which no physical copy exists. Our collection databases can help you narrow your search.

Search Digital Collections

Other Collections

Some of our collections have separate collection guides not included in the ARC, which can be browsed through our Archives Online & Other Collection list.


Creating Rollins History Together

Ask the Archives

For inquiries about donations, material use or requests

Preserve Scholarly Work

To add to our digital collection of Rollins scholarship

Share College Records

To document the development and growth of the College