One of the most important components consists of the negative file of the Barnard Studio of Wallace, Idaho, donated to the Library by the heirs of the late Nellie Stockbridge. These provide an almost complete photographic record of Wallace and the surrounding Coeur d'Alene mining district from 1894 through 1956. Among the strengths of the Department of Special Collections and Archives is the acquisition, preservation, cataloging, and use of primary documentation of the history of Idaho and the West. They support research into nearly all facets of the history of Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. Access to the manuscripts and archival material in the library is provided primarily by the on-line bibliographical catalog.
Descriptive entries identify the persons, places, and things of prominence in the collection.
Larger bodies of material frequently have supplementary inventories and descriptive guides, whose presence is noted in the on-line bibliographical catalog . Kept in stack areas closed to public access, and frequently measured in the hundreds of cubic feet, these primary source materials are delivered to the reading room by the staff upon request. A more comprehensive description of the Personal Papers and University Archives is available. Some inventories have been placed on this server for both University Archives and Manuscript Collections .