The Southern Methodist University Archives serves as a research repository for the official administrative and historical records of the University. In addition, the Archives serves as the collective memory of Southern Methodist University.

The University Archives has two primary responsibilities:

• Collecting and preserving historical materials, making them available for reference and research.
• Providing useful documentation of the policies, people, aims, achievements, and events of the university.

Material in the Archives consists of non-current university records, regardless of medium, generated by faculty, staff, and students while conducting the business of the institution. This material includes office files, minutes, photographs, films, correspondence, artifacts and memorabilia, publications, scrapbooks, blueprints, oral history tapes, and manuscript collections. The SMU Archives, along with other university libraries, may collect faculty or alumni manuscript collections.

The Archives does not have