What institutions and organizations collect broadcast-related materials?
The following list includes the major archival repositories in the U.S. that maintain significant broadcast-related collections in order to preserve them and make them accessible to researchers from all over the world.
Always contact the curator first in order to follow the institution’s standard procedure for accessioning (taking on) donations. If they determine that your collection is a good fit, then the archives and donor will negotiate a legal agreement in the form of a Deed of Gift or Memorandum of Understanding which must be signed before materials are accepted.
Accepting all formats
American Heritage Center | Performing Arts Collections Laramie, WY. The AHC houses several important collections documenting popular culture and the entertainment industry, including motion pictures, music, radio , television, and comic books.
American Radio Archives Santa Barbara, CA. “The American Radio Archives (ARA) is one of the largest collections of archival material documenting the history of radio in the United States. Its more than 50 collections include the papers of important figures in the history of radio like Norman Corwin and Rudy Vallée, as well as the Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters Collection with its thousands of radio scripts and transcription discs.”
The Library of Congress Division for Broadcast (NAVCC) Culpeper, VA. The LOC collects and maintains large collections related to both radio and television broadcasting with significant regional and national relevance. The contact email is rsrc@loc.gov.
Special Collections in Mass Media & Culture at the University of Maryland College Park, MD. “We hold a wide-ranging collection of resources documenting the cultural and technical history of radio and television broadcasting. Our collections include radio and television programming in both commercial and noncommercial broadcasting. Additionally, we hold a variety of resources on broadcast media as a business, with material from corporations and trade organizations, individual radio and television stations, executives, writers, performers, producers and engineers.”
UCLA Film & Television Archive Los Angeles, CA. “The UCLA Film & Television Archive is renowned for its pioneering efforts to rescue, preserve and showcase moving image media, and is dedicated to ensuring that the collective visual memory of our time is explored and enjoyed for generations to come. Established in 1965, the Archive is the second-largest repository of motion pictures and broadcast programming in the United States, after the Library of Congress, and the world's largest university-held collection.”
Vanderbilt Television News Archive Nashville, TN. “The Vanderbilt Television News Archive is the world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. We have been recording, preserving and providing access to television news broadcasts of the national networks since August 5, 1968. The core collection includes evening news from ABC, CBS, and NBC (since 1968), an hour per day of CNN (since 1995) and Fox News (since 2004).”
Wisconsin Historical Society Mass Communications History Collection Madison, WI. “Communications History Collection was established in 1955 to document the importance of the mass media in 20th-century American life. This collection documents mass communications on both the national level and in the state of Wisconsin.”
Accepting digital formats only
American Archive of Public Broadcasting A collaboration between the Library of Congress and PBS station WGBH, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting launched in 2009. Their mission is to preserve and make accessible significant historical content created by public media, and to coordinate a national effort to save at-risk public media before its content is lost to posterity.
Digital Public Library of America “The Digital Public Library of America amplifies the value of libraries and cultural organizations as Americans’ most trusted sources of shared knowledge. They work with a network of partners to make millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience.”
The Internet Archive Radio Collection This is “a wildly diverse and massive collection of radio station recordings, broadcast captures, radio shows and programs, and more.”
The Internet Archive TV News Collection “The programs allow users to search across a collection of television news programs dating back to 2009 for research and educational purposes such as fact checking. Users may view short clips, share links to customized short quotes, embed customized short quotes, or borrow a copy of the full program.”
Regional Archives, Institutions, and Colleges & Universities
If broadcast collections have distinctive associations with a particular state or region, then state historical societies, regional archives, colleges/universities, or libraries who maintain historic collections may be interested in collecting them. While there are too many to list in entirety here, some examples of such repositories are:
Atlanta University Center Robert W. Woodruff Library
Briscoe Center for American History at UT-Austin
Mid-Atlantic Regional Moving Image Archive
New York Public Library Special Collections
North East Ohio Broadcast Archives at John Carroll University
St. Louis Media Archives at St. Louis Public Library
Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center
Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Tulane University Special Collections
University of Baltimore Special Collections
Brown Media Archives at University of Georgia
University of Minnesota Radio and Television Broadcasting Records
