The Caterpillar Archive is a part of the Avant Garde Collection at the Fales Library, New York University. The Fales Library is the primary special collections division of the NYU libraries, housing over 170,000 volumes of English and American literature from 1700 to the present. Strengths of the collection include the development of the English and American novel, with an emphasis on the Gothic and the Victorian novel. The Caterpillar Archive is a part of the Avant Garde Collection, collected at Fales Library during the 1960's and 70's by Mel Edelstein and Theodore Grieder. Though the date range of this collection includes material that predates and was written subsequently, the run of Caterpillar was from 1967-1971.

The materials were collected by Eshleman and were arranged in alphabetical order by subject/name and then chronologicaly within that subject. Oversized materials from the various series are located in an oversize box at the end of the collection.

The Caterpillar Archive is an archive comprised of all the correspondence and manuscript material that created Caterpillar's issues, such as: business records, magazine layouts, page proofs, advertisements, and rough drafts. Also included are Clayton Eshleman's personal papers including correspondence and his manuscripts written between 1958-76. Noted correspondents include: Robert Duncan, Cid Corman, Norman O. Brown, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Denise Levertov, Robert Kelly, Gary Snyder, Gerard Malanga, Diane Wakoski, Luis Zukofsky, Gilbert Sorrentino, Vito Acconci, Georges Bataille, Carol Berg, Robert Bly, Charles Bukowski, Robert Creeley, Leon Golub, Thomas Merton, Anais Nin, Adrienne Rich, and Nancy Spero.

SERIES DESCRIPTION Series I: Clayton Eshleman: contains four boxes of Clayton Eshlemans personal documents, pertaining to the magazine Caterpillar. Included are his manuscripts, correspondence, and related material.Series II: Caterpillar Correspondence: contains ten boxes of correspondence and manuscripts to Caterpillar, included are writings from: Vito Acconci, Georges Bataille, Carol Berg, Robert Bly, Charles Bukowski, Robert Creeley, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, Leon Golub, Denise Levertov, Thomas Merton, Anais Nin, Adrienne Rich, Gary Snyder, and Nancy Spero.Series III: Caterpillar Issues: contains eight boxes of page proofs, front/back covers, manuscript layouts, rough drafts, advertisements, and a author/artist index for Caterpillar issues 1-20.Series IV: Caterpillar Galleys: contains one oversize box of galleys for issue's 1, 3, and 5.