The mission of Special Collections is to collect, preserve, and provide access to manuscript collections made up of primary sources that focus on California, American history, and the University of the Pacific, as well as a specialized book collection. The Special Collections department is open to the public and especially welcomes Pacific students to use its unique resources in their research.

Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives is responsible for the curation, preservation and access of our archival collections. We are committed to upholding the description of archival materials and special collections in a respectful and accurate manner while maintaining the historical context of the collections we manage. However, the materials we describe are not neutral. Users may encounter offensive, harmful, or otherwise outdated language and/or imagery in archival materials our institution makes available.