Digital Collections: Utah &The West

Mountain West Digital Library
The Mountain West Digital Library is a compilation of digital collections from universities, colleges, public libraries, museums, and historical societies in Utah. Below are direct links to a few of the collections of particular relevance to Utah and Western historical study. However, we recommend you also browse their comprehensive list.

• Utah Digital Newspapers (University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library)
  The collection makes available three weekly Utah newspapers from the period of 1889 -1922. The Grand Valley Times/The Times-Independent (Moab), The Wasatch Wave (Heber), and the Vernal Express (Vernal) for this range of years contain a total of over 30,000 pages.

• Overland Trails Diaries & Maps (University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library) "Six diaries and thirty maps from 1847-1869, during the Mormon Pioneer's emigration to the Western United States, are included in this collection."

• Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters 1846-1869 (Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library)
  This is a collection of hte original writings of 49 voyagers on the Mormon, California, Oregon, and Montana trails who wrote while traveling on the trail. In addition to the the original diary images and their searchable transcripts, the collection contains maps, trail guides, photographs, watercolors and art sketches.

• City Engineers Photographic Collection (Utah State Historical Society)
  "The collection covers the time period 1902 to approximately 1932 and documents the construction of the infrastructure of Salt Lake City and the surrounding area. This includes roads, sewers, irrigation systems, curb and gutters, street lighting, street repairs, comfort stations, mills, dams, reservoirs, bridges, etc."

• Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection (Utah State Historical Society)
  "The Shipler Commercial Photographers Collection of approximately 100,000 negatives documents the people and places of Utah and the surrounding states between 1903 and 1980."

• Photo Archives (University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library)
  "Thousands of photographs on skiing and other regional interests. Photograph Archives is a division of Marriott Library Special Collections."

• Leo Thorne Photograph Collection (Uintah County Library)
  "Uintah County's premier historical photograph collection"

• Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps (University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library)
  "The Sanborn Map® Collection consists of a uniform series of large-scale detailed maps, dating from 1867 through 1969 and depicting the commercial, industrial, and residential sections of [...] Salt Lake City, Park City, Logan, Provo, and Ogden."

• Exploration of the the Colorado River of the West (University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library)
  A digital presentation of the "Exploration of the Colorado River of the West and its tributaries explored in 1869, 1870, 1871, and 1872," written by John Wesley Powell.

Digital Collections at Brigham Young University
A compilation of digitized collections from the Harold B. Lee Library and from the Museum of Art

Early Mormon Publications (Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library)
A collection of books, which "contributed to the ideological development of the LDS Church, marked an important historical event, or affected history itself."

Mormon Literature Database (Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library)
"A scholarly resource to literary writings and associated artistic works by and about Mormons."

Women's Manuscript Collections (Brigham Young University, Harold B. Lee Library)
"A guide to some of the women's collections housed in the BYU Archives. It provides a biographical sketch for each woman and an abstract with a description and summary of the collection"

Heritage—the Gateway to Colorado's Digitization Projects
"Heritage is a database that brings to the people of Colorado the special collections and unique resources of Colorado's archives, historical societies, libraries and museums in digital format. You can access photos, textual materials, artifacts, costumes, diaries, oral history transcripts, manuscripts, and a host of other materials on Colorado's cultural, scientific and historical heritage." (from website)