The Arizona Collection is a continuation of the 1864 Territorial Library. It contains books, periodicals, city and county reports, and vertical files related to the history, government, culture, and people of Arizona and the Southwest.
Click here to view the city and telephone directories finding aid. City directories are available in print, microfilm/fiche, or digital form.
Click here to view city directories from the Arizona Collection and other partner collections on the Arizona Memory Project.
Please note that the files can be quite large and may take a few minutes to open or download.
This collection of books represents early Arizona history. The historic collection spans territorial and statehood days, and continues to the mid-20th century. Materials selected include Arizona histories from the early days of the territory and statehood, biographies and autobiographies, Indigenous history and culture, and items of archaeological and anthropological interest.
Digitized historic books can be found on the Arizona Memory Project.
Browse all books from the Arizona Collection in the Research Library catalog.
The periodical collection contains over 900 titles including popular magazines, scholarly journals, historic newsletters, trade publications, etc. Some examples that may be of interest to genealogy researchers include Arizona Builder and Contractor, Arizona Mining Journal, Arizona Medicine, and Arizona Stockman.
Click here to view a list of print periodicals.
Digitized periodicals can be found on the Arizona Memory Project.
The Arizona Collection houses both subject and biographical vertical files.
Subject vertical files contain a wide spectrum of subjects related to Arizona culture and history. Biographical vertical files contain information about legislators and Arizonans of note. Curation of this collection has continued since its creation in the 1930s.
Vertical files may contain newspaper clippings, short articles, and other possibly unique ephemera. They are useful for those just beginning their research and those trying to enhance their research.
Click here to view a full list of biographical vertical files.
Click here to view a full list of subject vertical files.