Artifacts in the libraries are deteriorating. SU delayed a plan to save them. Courtesy of SU Libraries The vast archive on the sixth floor of Bird Library holds priceless materials, such as published work of SU graduates from over 100 years ago. Facebook Subscribe to our newsletter here. Syracuse University football reels from the 1930s. Pulp science fiction magazines. Portraits of Albert Einstein, W.E.B. Du Bois and Langston Hughes. The original writings, letters and manuscripts of activists, abolitionists and anti-fascists. All of these one-of-a-kind artifacts are entrusted to the care of SU’s Special Collections Research Center, the vast archive of valuable materials the university stores largely on the sixth floor of Bird Library. And without immediate intervention, faculty familiar with the collections say many of these items will soon deteriorate to the point that their original content — and the history they preserve — will be lost.