Composite collections (also called artificial collections, vertical flles, and/or general files) are collections of materials with different provenance, gathered from different sources by Archives staff. This type of collection is useful for focusing on specific topics and is often the best place to begin researching a broad topic. Some composite collections we have are:

Biographical information by name

General Files organized by:

• academic/administrative department, program, or center
• campus building
• Greek and other student organizations

Photographs by subject

Photographs by biographical name

Postcards

If you know what you need, you can manually request materials from these collections by following these steps. Or you can contact us at specialcollections@northwestern.edu with details regarding your research query to request these collections.