Daguerreotypes were an early form of photography which did not permit reproduction therefore the images on the plates are unique. The daguerreoytypes in Special Collections have particular significance because among them are the first-known photographic images of Niagara Falls and the Clifton Hotel, taken in 1840 by metallurgical chemist and industrialist, Hugh Lee Pattinson (1796-1858) who was Gertrude Bell's great-grandfather.

There are also two daguerreotypes depicting Rome which are signed 'Lerebours'. The daguerreotypes have deteriorated: the plates exhibit signs of spotting, surface scratches, there are cracks in the glass and the plates have oxidised but they have been conserved and digitised.

The Crawhall Collection is a wonderfully-diverse and visual collection of material by and relating to local businessman, artist and patron of the arts, Joseph Crawhall II (1821-1896). The published book portion of this collection comprises of 23 volumes and includes chapbooks, such as Olde ffrendes with newe faces (1883), A Jubilee Thought (1887) and Old Aunt Elspa's ABC [1884].

19th Century printed ephemera, much of which originates from North East England.

The Bradshaw-Bewick Collection contains works by and relating to the engraver Thomas Bewick (1753-1828). Bewick was born at Cherryburn, near Mickley, Northumberland and his early interest in drawing, under the tuition of the Reverend C. Gregson, was later developed when he was apprenticed under the Newcastle engraver, Ralph Beilby. He was to become a master craftsman.Bewick had a particular fascination with the natural world and this is reflected in works such as A general history of quadrupeds (1790) and History of British birds (1797). The collection is strong in Bewick's other main area of interest - morals and fables. His Select fables (1784) was immediately popular and ran into several editions but he worked on many small moral instruction books, such as Youth's instructive and entertaining story-teller (1778) and The looking-glass for the mind (1792).

This collection comprises a large number of the musical manuscripts of the twentieth-century British composer David Barlow (1927-1975), formerly a lecturer in the Department of Music at Newcastle University, although it is not a complete collection of his works. The material comprises over 100 items which cover the musical genres of orchestral, opera, choral, songs, solo works, instrumental and chamber music, although some of the scores are incomplete. Barlow's musical influences included biblical and literary interests and the collection includes his church operas David and Bathsheba and Judas Iscariot as well as his children's opera The Selfish Giant. The collection also contains copies of many of Barlow's important works which are held at the British Music Information Centre, as well as some early manuscripts (mainly short works and sketches) and copies of recordings of Barlow's music and interviews, held on ten reel-to-reel tapes at present.