Special Collections, Heritage, and Archives

Special Collections, Heritage, and Archives (SCHA) includes the Library’s Special Collections and Archives, the National Fairground and Circus Archive and the University’s Heritage Collections. We collect, preserve and provide access to our extraordinary collections.

An image of an opened book.

Discover our Collections

Search for and browse material held by Special Collections and the National Fairground and Circus Archive (NFCA). Descriptions of our collections can now be searched using Discover Our Archives and other finding aids, including digitised material.
SCHA Reading Room 2024
Special Collections, Heritage, and Archives Reading Room

Use our Collections

Special Collections and Archives and the National Fairground and Circus Archive are open to students and staff, as well as external researchers. Find information about our reading room and how to book your visit, digitisation services and how to contact us.
An image of visitors looking at display cases of a Library exhibition.

Exhibitions and Engagement

We hold regular exhibitions, talks and activities at Western Bank Library and other venues as part of our public programme of events. Visitors can explore a diversity of stories told through our collections. All our exhibitions and events are free and open to the public.

An image of a glass case exhibiting our special collections.

Special Collections and Archives

Special Collections and Archives holds over 300 collections of archives, manuscripts, photographs, books, pamphlets, and music scores, over 30,000 rare books, and numerous artworks and objects. Our collections support and inspire the academic work of the University, the wider scholarly and research community, and our local communities.
Woman on a chairoplain

National Fairground and Circus Archive

The National Fairground and Circus Archive is a unique research archive dedicated to the collection and preservation of travelling popular entertainment history in the United Kingdom. It covers every aspect of travelling entertainment culture and contextualises its evolution, cross-cultural impact, and global spread and influence.
An image of The graduation wall hanging in Western Bank Library.

University Heritage Collection

The University Heritage Collection consist of thousands of objects that the University has acquired since its foundation in 1905, preserved to enhance teaching and research, and to demonstrate the history and development of the University of Sheffield, and its position as one of the UK’s leading research universities.