Research Guides: Digital Collections at Bryn Mawr College: Home

What are Digital Collections?

Bryn Mawr College’s digital collections support the overarching mission of the Library & Information Technology Services (LITS) division to enhance the educational mission of the College and to preserve its material heritage. Digital collections promote teaching and learning by removing barriers to the access of primary sources.

The TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections repository includes unique and rare archival collections, manuscripts, publications, ephemera, maps, and photographs, sourced primarily from the Rare Book and Manuscripts and College Archives divisions of Special Collections.

TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections video tutorial

Digital access to the Art and Artifacts collection is maintained separately via TriArte, and digital access to institutional scholarship is maintained separately via Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College.

While only a fraction of these unique items have been made available in digital form to date, the College continues to make digitizing and increasing access to these unique materials a priority.

Repositories and Databases

The following databases and repositories are maintained by Bryn Mawr and the TriCollege libraries.

TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections repository
Digital collections sourced primarily from the Rare Book and Manuscripts and College Archives divisions of Special Collections at Bryn Mawr College; Quaker and Special Collections at Haverford College; Swarthmore College Peace Collection; and Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College. This repository includes manuscript collections, rare books, college archives materials, photo archives, images, college publications, and more.

TriArte: The Art & Artifacts Database of the TriColleges This link opens in a new window
TriArte features art and artifacts from Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore Colleges. Begin your search here to find fine and decorative arts objects or objects from the archaeology and ethnographic collections.

Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College (BMC Repository)
Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College is an open-access repository for research and scholarship produced by the Bryn Mawr College community. It includes a selection of published works by faculty and staff, student dissertations and these, conference proceedings, and more.
Bryn Mawr College Special Collections on the Internet Archive
The Bryn Mawr College Library is contributing digital content to the Internet Archive relating to the history of the college, and more broadly on the history of women's education. This includes a selection of yearbooks, student publications, annual reports, college newspapers, and alumnae bulletins. The Internet Archive is a great place to read and search full volumes online, but it does not do a great job of letting you search across the full text of collections. So, if you know a particular item that you are looking for, find and read it on the Internet Archive.

Digital Projects

Bryn Mawr College Special Collections has been a participant in numerous grant-funded and multi-institutional projects.

Albert M. Greenfield Digital Center for the History of Women’s Education at Bryn Mawr College
An online locus for scholarship on the history of women’s education. Includes numerous digital exhibitions relating to Bryn Mawr history.
Bibliotheca Philadelphiensis
A collaborative project among Philadelphia-area institutions to digitize all of the European medieval manuscripts in their collections. Funded by the Digitizing Hidden Collections Program of the Council of Library and Information Resources, 2016.
College Women: Documenting the History of Women in Higher Education
A collaborative project among the Seven Sisters Colleges to create a digital collection of students letters, diaries and scrapbooks. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, 2016.
In Her Own Right: The Many Faces of Women’s Activism, 1820-1920
A collaborative project among Philadelphia-area institutions to digitize documents relating to the history of women’s activism in the region. Funded by the Digitizing Hidden Collections initiative of the Council of Library and Information Resources, 2018.
Manuscripts of the Muslim World
A collaborative project among Philadelphia institutions and Columbia University to digitize Islamic world manuscripts in our collections. Funded by the Digitizing Hidden Collections initiative of the Council of Library and Information Resources, 2018.

Digital Collections - A to Z list

This is an alphabetical list of all of the digital collections at Bryn Mawr College.

Annual Reports of the Alumnae Assocation of Bryn Mawr College (Internet Archive)
Annual reports from 1892-1905, preceded the Alumnae Bulletin/Alumnae Quarterly.
Annual Reports of the President of Bryn Mawr College (BMC Repository)
Annual Reports of the President of Bryn Mawr College (Internet Archive)
Reports in 11 volumes, 1884-1971.
BiblioPhilly Medieval Manuscripts (OPENN)
A collection of fifty-three digitized medieval manuscripts from the Bryn Mawr College collections, dating from the 11th to 18th century.
Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletins (Internet Archive)
Alumnae Bulletins and Alumnae Quarterly from 1907-1940.
Bryn Mawr Alumnae Publications (BMC Repository)
Bryn Mawr College Calendars (BMC Repository)
Bryn Mawr College Calendars (Internet Archive)
College calendars (catalogs) from 1908-2008. See also College Programs for the earliest course listings and information about the college
Bryn Mawr College Finding Aids on the PACSCL Finding Aids website
Finding aids for a selection of manuscript and archival collections from Bryn Mawr College.
Bryn Mawr College Graduate School Course Catalogs and Calendars (Internet Archive)
Volumes from 1891-1903 and 1980-2001. See also Bryn Mawr College Calendars for course information in the interim.
Bryn Mawr College News (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
The student newspaper of Bryn Mawr College, published weekly (except holidays) during the academic year. Issues from 1914 - 1968 have been digitized.
Bryn Mawr College Photo Archives (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
This collection includes photographs, slides, transparencies, and negatives depicting the history of Bryn Mawr College from the mid 1800s to the late 1990s. Images depict individuals associated with the College, including faculty, staff, students, and alumnae/i; historical and current College buildings and campus landscapes; events, including commencement, sports, plays, and traditions; and group photographs. The majority of the images are black-and-white, though there are some color images from the late 1960s through the 1990s. Early photographic formats include cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards, cyanotypes, and photomechanical prints.
Bryn Mawr College Postcards (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
This collection primarily includes postcards depicting the Bryn Mawr College campus and individual buildings, though some also show traditions and events like May Day or Lantern Night.
Bryn Mawr College Programs (Internet Archive)
College Programs (early college calendars/catalogs) from 1893-1908. These also served as promotional materials for the college and some contain pictures, drawings or floor plans of college buildings.
Bryn Mawr College Publications (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
Bryn Mawr College Publications contains a variety of publications produced by the College over the years. These include informational booklets about various collections and college history as well as books of entrance examinations and other archival materials.
Bryn Mawr College Scrapbook and Photo Album Collection (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
This collection contains scrapbooks and photograph albums assembled by Bryn Mawr College alumnae/i, focusing on their years at Bryn Mawr College. The scrapbooks contain personal memorabilia, such as letters and cards, programs, photographs, newspaper clippings, souvenirs from dances and dinners, and college traditions material. Poems, drawings, and notes from friends give a distinctive perspective into daily life at Bryn Mawr College. Each scrapbook is unique and gives the reader an impression of the author, her era, and Bryn Mawr College.
Bryn Mawr College Yearbooks (Internet Archive)
Yearbooks through 1949 currently available.
Bryn Mawr College Yearbooks (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
Bryn Mawr College yearbooks through 1949.
The Castle Collection of Natural History Illustrations (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
The collection consists of representative images from more than 150 botanical and ornithological books, printed between 1499 and 1920, and including many of the landmark works in each field. The books are from the Ethelinda Schaefer Castle Collection.
Carrie Chapman Catt Papers (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was an internationally recognized suffragist, feminist, and political activist. This collection contains six of Catt’s personal photograph albums, circa 1840 to 1940. The albums contain approximately 815 photographs related to the women's suffrage movement, including portraits and records of parades, demonstrations, conferences, and other events. The albums cover both the American and international suffrage movements. Notable figures depicted include: Louisa May Alcott, Dr. Josephine Baker, Carrie Chapman Catt, Emmeline Pankhurst, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Counterpoint (Internet Archive)
Student literary magazine of Bryn Mawr College, 1948-1955. Related titles include Fortnightly Philistine, The Lantern, Tipyn O'Bob, The Title.
Early Advertising Collection (Triptych)
The Early Advertising Collection contains European and American printed advertisements dating from 1790 to 1910. The majority of the collection are trade cards of the late nineteenth century.
Katrina Thomas Ethnic Wedding Photographs (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
The Katrina Thomas Ethnic Wedding Photographs collection includes 800 photographs captured by freelance photographer Katrina Thomas between 1963 and 2001, documenting the ways in which immigrant groups maintain and adapt wedding practices in the United States. While the greatest number took place in recent immigrant families, there are also many in older immigrant communities. Thomas sought out weddings where the family had decided to maintain or revive their group’s ceremonial traditions, although often enacting them within a contemporary context.
Fortnightly Philistine (Internet Archive)
Bryn Mawr College student literary magazine. See also The Lantern, Tipyn O'Bob, Counterpoint, The Title.
Frances Arnold Family Letters (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
Scrapbook of letters written by Frances Arnold, Bryn Mawr College Class of 1897, to her parents and cousin, written from Bryn Mawr and during Arnold's travel to France, Germany and Italy, ca. 1893-1897. Note that to date, the scrapbook is loaded with no additional transcription or description at the page level. It is uploaded for browsing only and it not full-text searchable.
Geology Maps (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
This collection includes maps that were part of Masters theses and PhD dissertations granted by the Geology Department at Bryn Mawr College between 1908 and 2001.
The Lantern (Internet Archive)
Bryn Mawr College Literary Magazine, Volumes 1-23, 1891-1944. See also Fortnightly Philistine, Tipyn O'Bob, The Title, Counterpoint.
M. Carey Thomas Papers (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
M. Carey Thomas (1857-1935) became the first Dean and head of the English Department when Bryn Mawr College opened in 1884. Following the death of the college's first president, James Rhoads, in 1894, she was elected to succeed him in the position. She used her position to both expand the College, ensuring several new buildings were constructed on campus, and to influence college policies. Thomas was involved in the women's suffrage movement and an early promoter of adding a sex-based equal rights amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Although she was interested in rights for white, Anglo-Saxon women, Thomas's legacy of racism and antisemitism kept both Black and Jewish students out of Bryn Mawr even after she stepped down as president. This collection is comprised of documents from both Thomas's personal papers and the official records that survive from her time at Bryn Mawr College, including office subject files and a great deal of personal correspondence.
Mellink Archive (ArtStor)
Machteld Johanna Mellink (1917–2006) was a pioneer of Anatolian archaeology and a pre-eminent scholar of ancient Turkish cultures. For nearly three decades, she served as chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College. Upon her death, Mellink bequeathed her personal archive of color slides to Bryn Mawr College, where it is now housed in the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology. Approximately 3,900 images from the Mellink Archive have been added to the Digital Library, the majority of which depict archaeological sites in Turkey, including numerous images of sites that Mellink excavated herself. Also well-represented are sites in Greece, Cyprus, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, dating from Prehistoric through Medieval periods. Produced from the 1950s through the 1990s, these images depict the Classical and Near Eastern archaeological sites that Mellink explored, studied, and taught over the course of her long, celebrated career.
Machteld J. Mellink Collection of Archaeological Site Photographs (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
Machteld Johanna Mellink (1917-2006) was an archaeologist and faculty member in the department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr College for five decades. The 3955 images in this collection were digitized from Mellink's collection of 35mm Kodachrome slides, taken in Turkey, Greece, Syria, Cyprus, Iraq, and Iran between the 1950s and 1990s.
Manuscripts of the Muslim World (OPENN)
A collection of twenty-two digitized Islamic manuscripts from the Bryn Mawr College collections. Includes texts in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Syriac, and Berber (Tashelheit/Shilha), dating from the 10th to 19th century.
Mary Whitall Worthington Papers (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
Mary Whitall Worthington (d. 1912) was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College class of 1910 and the president of the Bryn Mawr chapter of the Woman’s Equal Suffrage League. She was the niece of the College’s second president, M. Carey Thomas. After graduating from Bryn Mawr, Worthington attended Johns Hopkins Medical School but died as the result of congenital heart failure in January 1912. This collection primarily includes Worthington’s diaries, covering her time at Bryn Mawr College and her first year of medical school at Johns Hopkins University and interspersed with photographs, correspondence, and ephemera. They are extensive and eloquent reflections on Worthington’s life as a young woman attending college in the early 20th century. The collection also includes Worthington’s notes, a speech written for a Suffrage League meeting, and a handwritten play.
Matriculation exams (BMC Repository)
Matriculation exams from the 1890-1900.
Mirabile Dictu (BMC Repository)
Back issues of the Bryn Mawr College Library newsletter.
Single Leaf Manuscripts (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
The Single Leaf Manuscripts Collection features several dozen medieval manuscripts donated by Sigmund Harrison. Most of these are religious texts and written in Latin. Additional highlights of this collection, gifts of Felix Usis, include six papal bulls, a document sealed by Queen Elizabeth I, a legal document signed by Louis XV, a letter signed by Philip II of Spain to the man in charge of supplies for his armada, and a few Arabic manuscripts, including one with an extraordinary illustration of a medieval battle scene.
Speer Family Papers (Triptych)
The Speer Family Papers represent four generations of that family, with the bulk of material attributed to Robert Elliott Speer and his wife and three of his five children: Emma Bailey, Elliott, Margaret Bailey, and William Speer. To date, a selection of letters, scrapbooks, images and ephemera from the Speer collection have been digitized to provide an introduction to Margaret Bailey Speer, a strong leader and visionary who applied herself fully to the matters that compelled her. This engagement is most visible in her work for the education of Chinese women, with which she involved herself in various capacities beginning in the years shortly after her graduation from Bryn Mawr College in 1922, and continuing up until her death.
Theresa Helburn Theater Photography (TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections)
American playwright and theatrical producer Theresa Helburn (1887-1959) was a graduate of Bryn Mawr College class of 1908. Helburn had a long and distinguished career on Broadway and was a co-founder and producer of the New York Theatre Guild from 1919 to the 1950s. This collection includes over 1100 photographs related to Helburn's work on behalf of the Theatre Guild. Due to copyright restrictions, some images are restricted to the TriCollege community.
Tipyn O'Bob (Internet Archive)
Bryn Mawr College literary magazine student publication, Volumes 1-16, 1903-1918. Other titles include The Lantern, Fortnightly Philistine, Counterpoint, The Title.
The Title (Internet Archive)
Bryn Mawr College student literary magazine, 1944-1948. Other student publication titles include Fortnightly Philistine, The Lantern, Tipyn O'Bob, Counterpoint.