Princeton University Library Collection of Western Americana Photographs, 1840-1998 (mostly 1870-1915)

Started in the 1970s, this closed collection includes more than 5,000 photographs consisting mostly of documentary photographs of the Trans-Mississippi West from the late 1860s to early 1900s, largely from the perspective of white photographers and settlers. Subjects include American Indians (especially studio portraits), natural wonders, cities, towns, buildings, and economic activities (mining, railroads, logging, and agriculture). Some photographs relate to the Indigenous populations of Mexico and Central America. The dimensions, physical formats, and photographic processes of the photographs vary widely.

Photographers represented include Charles Milton Bell, John Nicholas Choate, John K. Hillers, Charles Fletcher Lummis, Eadweard Muybridge, Frank A. Rinehart, Bernard Gurney Randall, Carlton E. Watkins, Orloff R. Westmann, Ben Wittick, and many others; as well as photographers whose work was marketed commercially by the Keystone View Company, Underwood & Underwood, and other firms. The collection also includes the work of some contemporary photographers, such as Ulli Steltzer and Kenji Kawano.

For earlier accessions, photographs that are identified with the letter "S" are small prints, many of which are stereographic photographs; those identified with the letters "M" and "L" are mostly albumen prints, and the latter are oversize; photographs with the letter "H" include tintypes, ambrotypes, daguerreotypes, and lantern slides; and photographs marked with "X" include mammoth prints as well as gelatin silver prints.

No additions will be made to this collection. Accessions relating to this topic will be added to the General Manuscripts Miscellaneous Collection (C0140).

Racist, colonialist, and sexist language were used to describe many of the items in this collection. In some cases, descriptions were creator-supplied or generated from transcriptions of captions on the photographs. In other cases, in which photographs lacked any identifying information, descriptions were created by an archivist. These items are identified in the description with the note, "Cataloger supplied title." However, the collection is a candidate for ongoing reparative description work. We hope that researchers will engage in a dialogue with staff about issues in the collection and changes that could help.