RIT Archive Collections records and photographs

In 1959 the RIT Policy Committee put forward a proposal to create a room where old RIT records and publications could be kept. The proposal passed, and the RIT Archives was officially instituted in 1960 by Alfred Johns, the RIT Registrar, and administered by the Wallace Library. In 1976, reference librarian Gladys Taylor, who had been managing the archives since their founding, became RIT's first full-time archivist.

Since that time, the Archives has acquired RIT records, documents, photographs, ephemera, videos, motion pictures, artworks and more, preserving collections for research and exhibition. Gladys Taylor managed the Archives until 1989 when she retired. In 1989, a new room for the RIT Archives was built as part of the addition on the Wallace Library building. The archives — now complete with stacks, a reading room, and a work room— was managed by various librarians part-time until 2003, when Becky Simmons was hired full-time as RIT Archivist. The archive collections have continued to expand, particularly with the addition of the RIT/NTID Deaf Studies Archive in 2006. RIT Archive Collections also includes the University Art Collection. RIT Archive Collections is currently staffed by RIT Archivist Becky Simmons, Associate Archivist Jody Sidlauskas, two part-time staff, and part-time student employees.