In 1991, Charles E. Little and The Johns Hopkins University Press donated the core of what would become the Greenways Archive at NCSU Libraries Special Collections Research Center. After the completion of his path-breaking book, Greenways for America, Charles E. Little wanted to donate his impressive collection of greenways material to an academic institution that was committed to the development of greenways systems across the United States. NCSU was chosen as the repository for the Archive because of the strong interest for greenways in the Raleigh, NC area and the university's renowned programs in Parks and Recreation, Landscape Design, Engineering, and Environmental Sciences. For several years, however, the Archive remained undeveloped, consisting primarily of the Little papers.

In 1998 the Evergreen Foundation provided the first installment of a generous grant to improve the Greenways Archive at NCSU Libraries. This important first step furnished the means to develop the Archive beyond the core collection of the Charles E. Little Papers. The grant funded a far-reaching and ambitious project to document the growth of greenways in the United States through the preservation and dissemination of data received through surveys and new acquisitions.