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While North America is not known to have been an area of special collection interest at any time before the mid-twentieth century, the age and breadth of our collections ensures that American scholarship is represented in many fields: science, medicine, economics, literature, etc. The travels and emigration of the University's graduates and of the local population have been another source of material, with accounts of personal and business relationships well documented in family and estate papers. In addition to modern material, a very high percentage of printed and manuscript material held in Special Collections and the Basement store of Queen Mother Library is readily accessible by keyword in the library's OPAC catalogue and the experimental Web catalogue of manuscripts.

Modern printed collections

Collections at Aberdeen contain extensive runs of papers, diaries and letters of many of the US presidents and other notable people, along with important reference material, such as Joseph Sabin's A dictionary of books relating to America… (29 vols in 14; Amsterdam, 1961-62), and some volumes of The new Sabin. Early printed material & special collections (incl. music) The library has about 20 literary works from 18th to the 20th century and there are approximately 20 items of interest in the O'Dell Railway Collection. In addition there are about 80 items relating to travel and description and 120 biographies and reminiscences of people who visited or lived in North America. The extensive Thomson, Herald and King collections of mainly 19th-century pamphlets contain such things as reports of the organisations connected with emigration. They are all available via the library catalogue. In addition to the titles noted in the holdings list above, the local press from 1747 under various titles has contemporary accounts of events and developments as both official news despatches and correspondence, for example the Aberdeen Free Press ran a series of letters from a North East "Wisconsin Scot" in the 1860s, and the library also holds the Atlantic monthly (1857-1930; 1939-1988), the North American Review and misc Journal (1815-1930) and Scribner's magazine (1887-1928).

Early printed material & special collections (incl. music)

The library has about 20 literary works from 18th to the 20th century and there are approximately 20 items of interest in the O'Dell Railway Collection. In addition there are about 80 items relating to travel and description and 120 biographies and reminiscences of people who visited or lived in North America. The extensive Thomson, Herald and King collections of mainly 19th-century pamphlets contain such things as reports of the organisations connected with emigration. They are all available via the library catalogue.

In addition to the titles noted in the holdings list above, the local press from 1747 under various titles has contemporary accounts of events and developments as both official news despatches and correspondence, for example the Aberdeen Free Press ran a series of letters from a North East "Wisconsin Scot" in the 1860s, and the library also holds the Atlantic monthly (1857-1930; 1939-1988), the North American Review and misc Journal (1815-1930) and Scribner's magazine (1887-1928).

Manuscripts & archives

Manuscript collections include a number of estate and family papers that contain references to North America and the Caribbean, as well as diaries, business records and trade union records of North American interest.
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Microform & audiovisual collections

There are a number of microform collections relating to prisons and prisoners in the USA and collections of around 50 videos on mainly 20th-century American history. One work on video and 20 audiocassettes relate to Ellis Island.
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Official publications

Collections of interest to North American studies consist largely of later compilations of official documents relating to the American presidency, the Continental Congress, the War of Rebellion and the constitutional history of Canada, as well as the index to publications of Canadian archives.
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Maps and visual resources

There are around 20 items of injterest in Special Collections, including the earliest representation of North America in a Ptolemaic map. In addition several historical atlases contain reproduction maps covering the revolutionary and Civil War periods. The library also has around 100 sheets at 1:24000 of the US Geological Survey and around 60 city plans. The collection of North American material in Marischal Museum consists of over 1100 items, with the Inuit and North-West Coast material being particularly significant.
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