Special collections: East Asia
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Using the East Asia Library's special collections
Visitors without a Stanford ID will need to supply a government ID and register upon entrance to the East Asia Library. Stanford affiliates (students, faculty [including emeriti], staff, fellows, postdoctoral researchers, and visiting scholars) can access the reading room with a StanfordID. Because many of our materials are stored offsite, we ask patrons to request materials at least three business days in advance (excluding weekends). To do so, first locate materials in SearchWorks, and then use the Aeon system to request delivery to the East Asia Library's Special Collections Reading Room (first-time Aeon users will need tocreate an account). Prior to using the reading room, please carefully read and sign the use procedures document.
Language and description of archival materials
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The Thomas S. Mullaney East Asian Information Technology History Collection
The Thomas S. Mullaney East Asian Information Technology History Collection is thought to be the only one of its kind in the world, containing over two thousand items assembled during fifteen years of research and teaching. The collection is currently in processing, but research grants are available for scholars who would like to work with it.
Chinese special collections
Tao Pai-chuan papers
Tao Pai-chuan 陶百川 (1901 - 2002) was a scholar and politician who served as an advisor to several prominent figures in the Republic of China government, including the presidents Chiang Ching-kuo and Lee Teng-hui. Tao's letters are valuable resources for the study of the legal and political history of Taiwan and provide much information on the internal workings of the Nationalist party. The collection also includes many of Tao's diaries, spanning several decades from the mid-1950s to the late 1990s. These materials are a valuable supplement to the documents and essays included within Tao's collected writings.
Anderson Photograph Collection of the YWCA in China, 1920s-1940s
Elsie Anderson spent seventeen years in China as a Secretary for the Young Women's Christian Association of China (YWCA) 中華基督教女青年會 between the 1920s and the 1940s. The private photography collection of Elsie Anderson was donated to the East Asia Library Special Collections by a relative in 2010. The collection includes more than 2900 photos, one diary, and some slides and postcards.
Huang-Bernhardt Collection of Chinese Legal Documents
This collection, donated by University of California, Los Angeles professors Philip C. C. Huang and Kathryn Bernhardt, includes some 2500 legal cases (and other records) from the Qing, Republican, and PRC eras, dating from the mid-eighteenth century through the 1980s. The emphasis of the collection is matters related to civil law (i.e. inheritance, marriage, land transactions, debt, contractual disputes, etc.), reflecting the collectors’ recent research focus. Legal history aside, the collection promises to be exceptionally valuable for the study of China’s economy.
Japanese special collections
Takarazuka collection at the East Asia Library
Consisting of pamphlets, postcards, and magazines from the 1910s through the present, the Takarazuka collection at the East Asia Library is a wonderfully illustrative introduction to this vibrant all-female theater troupe.
Japanese Buddhist musical materials
The Japanese Buddhist musical materials collection covers a wide swath of time, from the 1800s through the present. Printed volumes, manuscripts, and CDs provide a rich resource on the history of Buddhist instrumental and ritual music in Japan.
Travel through time: Japan
Travel Through Time: Japan gives a sample of travel-related ephemera collected by the East Asia Library at Stanford. Spanning the Edo through Taisho periods, the collection documents a period of much change. At the core of the collection are precinct prints 境内図, a genre of prints produced for pilgrims depicting the environs of a temple or shrine . Other items included in the collection are ephemera such as talismans, engi (miraculous origin stories), and sangoku densai (histories of Buddhism's emergence in India and subsequent spread through China to Japan).
Korean special collections
North Korean poster collection
This unique collection features original, hand-painted propaganda posters from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea). All posters have been digitized as high-quality images that can be downloaded from the Stanford Digital Repository.