Everything you wanted to know about the Mudd Manuscript Library but were afraid to ask!

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Who was See­ley G. Mudd?
See­ley G. Mudd was a Har­vard edu­cated car­di­ol­o­gist and later dean and pro­fes­sor at the Uni­ver­sity of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. Dur­ing his life­time, he con­tributed more than $10 mil­lion to var­i­ous col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties, and posthu­mously estab­lished a $44 mil­lion fund for the devel­op­ment of build­ings for higher edu­ca­tion, known as the See­ley G. Mudd Fund.
When was the Mudd Man­u­script Library built?
Con­struc­tion on the See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library was com­pleted in 1976.
But I’ve been to another See­ley G. Mudd library…
As the Mudd Fund gave grants to many other col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties, there are other facil­i­ties with sim­i­lar names, includ­ing some libraries, such as those at Yale Uni­ver­sity, Duke Uni­ver­sity, Lawrence Uni­ver­sity (Apple­ton, WI), and Pomona Col­lege (Clair­mont, CA).
What kind of col­lec­tions does the Mudd Library hold?
The Mudd Man­u­script Library has two pri­mary col­lec­tions, the Uni­ver­sity Archives and the Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers. For more infor­ma­tion, see: http://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/sources/whatkind.shtml

How many books does Mudd have?
As a man­u­script library and archives, Mudd pri­mar­ily con­tains col­lec­tions of papers and unbound mate­ri­als rather than books. Instead of count­ing books, a bet­ter mea­sure of our col­lec­tion size is lin­ear feet, (the amount of space boxes of papers take up). At last count, our col­lec­tions mea­sured 35,000 lin­ear feet. How­ever, we have more than just boxes of man­u­scripts; other mate­ri­als include pho­tographs, scrap­books, micro­film, mem­o­ra­bilia items, books, DVDs, 8mm film, CD-ROMs, and more.
What items are the most popular?
Since 1997, our most pop­u­lar col­lec­tions have been:
In the Uni­ver­sity Archives:
Senior The­ses (1926-Present)
His­tor­i­cal Sub­ject Files
His­tor­i­cal Pho­to­graph Col­lec­tion: Cam­pus Life Series
Doc­toral Dis­ser­ta­tions (Ph. D. Theses)
Under­grad­u­ate Alumni Files 1746–1920
The Prince­to­ni­ana Col­lec­tion (a col­lec­tion of books about Princeton-related topics)
His­tor­i­cal Pho­to­graph Col­lec­tion: Grounds and Buildings
Office of the Pres­i­dent Records: Dick­in­son to Dodds Subgroup
Fac­ulty Files
His­tor­i­cal Sub­ject Files: Grounds and Buildings
In the Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers:
John Fos­ter Dulles Papers
Amer­i­can Civil Lib­er­ties Union Records
Allen Dulles Papers
George Ken­nan Papers
Hamil­ton Fish Arm­stong Papers
Adlai Steven­son Papers
George Ball Papers
Coun­cil on For­eign Rela­tions Records
John Fos­ter Dulles Oral His­tory Project
John Mar­shal Har­lan Papers
Aside from these peren­ni­ally pop­u­lar col­lec­tions, other recent pop­u­lar Uni­ver­sity Archives col­lec­tions have included the Tri­an­gle Club Records, Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Library Records, and Prince­ton Auto­graph Book Collections.
Recently pop­u­lar Pub­lic Pol­icy Papers have included the Franklin Book Pro­gram, Jacob Viner Papers, David L. Morse Papers, and the records of Fight for Free­dom Incorporated.
What is the old­est thing you have?
The Mudd Man­u­script Library has the Uni­ver­sity Char­ter, the 1748 doc­u­ment that replaced the orig­i­nal char­ter that legally estab­lished the Uni­ver­sity in 1746, and the Board of Trustees Min­utes, which date back to Octo­ber 13th, 1748.
Do you have to be a Prince­ton student/faculty/staff to use the Mudd Library?
No, any­body with a valid photo ID is wel­come to explore our col­lec­tions. Many researchers with­out Prince­ton asso­ci­a­tion includ­ing geneal­o­gists, jour­nal­ists, stu­dents and fac­ulty from other uni­ver­si­ties, and inde­pen­dent researchers are fre­quent vis­i­tors, and we look for­ward to wel­com­ing them to the Mudd Library.
Why can’t I take col­lec­tions, micro­film, or books out?
Mudd mate­ri­als are one-of-a-kind, so to ensure the collection’s use for future researchers, no mate­r­ial cir­cu­lates. How­ever, researchers may order copies of items from most of our collections.