The collection consists of miscellaneous source material--letters, documents, and other separate, unbound manuscript items--pertaining to the history of the American West and Southwest in the 19th century, largely from the perspective of white settlers. Subjects include Native Americans, overland travel, settlement, mining, railroads, and business ventures. A number of items relate to the California Gold Rush.

The Princeton Collections of Western Americana were born with the 1947 gift of the collection of imprints and manuscripts focused on overland narratives, the cattle trade, and the Rocky Mountain West gathered by Philip Ashton Rollins, Class of 1889, and his wife, Beulah (Pack) Rollins. Their gift not only reoriented all previous acquisitions in the subject at Princeton, but remains a lodestone attracting other Western collections.

This miscellaneous collection contains small accessions of Western Americana-related material that the Library has acquired from 2013 to 2020. No additions will be made to this collection. Accessions relating to this topic will be added to the General Manuscripts Miscellaneous Collection (C0140).