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Beulah M. Davis Special Collections: Davis Room

Documenting the African American experience in Maryland through the contributions of the Morgan State University community. The Davis Room includes an ever-growing selection of manuscripts, University Archival Material, rare books, and artifacts.

About Special Collections

ida jones - the davis room

The Beulah M. Davis Research Room houses all available physical and historical special collections of the university. We house rare books, faculty and student publications, faculty document collections, a faculty-donated art-artifacts-sculpture collection, and Morgan dissertations and theses.  In addition, recently digitized collections include the Morgan Promethean yearbooks (1937-2019),  The Spokesman newspaper (1944-2012) and Morgan State (College) University Catalogs (1873 - 2019). Other digitized collections of university publications, oral history collections, and paper ephemera of the Morganiana Vertical Files collection are presented.

Who Was Beulah M. Davis

Beulah M. DavisMs. Davis was the first academically trained librarian and second alumna hired at Morgan in 1926. She served the University for 40 years. During her tenure she grew the collection from 7,000 volumes to over 100,000 volumes of books. In addition she sought and acquired manuscript collections to augment historical research and understanding. In 1941 she received assistance from Dr. Roland C. McConnell. Dr. McConnell, professor of history at Morgan, also worked at the National Archives and sought to integrate primary sources into the classroom and library at Morgan.

Davis Room Hours

Monday - Friday: 

10:00am - 3:00pm

Thursday, Saturday and Sunday:

Closed.

General Inquires: 

Call: (443) 885-3458

Appointments to visit the Davis Room are required.

Board of Regents Minutes

Morgan State University Catalogs

Morgan State University History

News & Updates

Mitchell-Quarles African American History Month Convocation
2025

2025 Mitchell-Quarles Convocation


Digital Special Collections

The Davis Research Room Digital Collections encompass several years of effort to convert precious historical physical records into digital format captured and secured in our databases.  We continue to work on digitizing the millions of pages of faculty, student, and university records and rare books. The "Special" in our collections is evident with every new digital conversion we accomplish.  Visit this section often to steep yourself in the deep history and broad contributions the National Treasure.

Commencement Programs

Convocation Programs

Dr. Ellen Irene Diggs Digitization Project

Morgan Mirror

Morgan State College Bulletin / University Catalogs 

The Morgan State College (University) Women’s Collection

The Promethean

Dr. Roland C. McConnell

The Spokesman

USDA Forest Service Oral History Collection

Morgan Sports

Morgan College Track Squad

1928 Track Team

Morgan College Football Squad

 Champions - Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association - 1932

Morgan College Football Squad

Colored Intercollegiate Championship Team -1933

Morgan College Track Squad

Colored Intercollegiate Championship Track Team - 1933

Morgan College Football Squad

Colored Intercollegiate Championship Team - 1934

Morgan College Football Squad

1937 C.I.A.A Champs

Morgan State College Football Team

1955 Championship Team 

Unprocessed Manuscript Collections

  • Emmett J. Scott Papers
  • Ellen Irene Diggs Papers
  • Therman O. Daniels Papers
  • Kate I. Sheppard Papers
  • Ivanhoe Higgins Papers
  • James H. Gilliam, Jr. Papers
  • Lathan A. Windley Papers
  • Iantha Tucker Papers

Theses & Dissertations

Morgan State University's Master Theses & Dissertations are housed in the Beulah M. Davis Special Collections Department. Masters theses and dissertation are non-circulating and follow our copyright policies.

They are available online through our Institutional Repository or in the ProQuest Theses & Dissertations Global database, both of which are linked below.

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