McWhorter's varied if sometimes confusing documentation of the 1877 Nez Perce War and of Pacific Northwest Indian cultural practices constitutes a significant body of primary source material. His published work is considered essential to understanding Nez Perce history. Most of McWhorter's personal papers were removed by Virgil McWhorter prior to depositing his father's archive at the State College. The documents in the collection are arranged chronologically into nine series organized around subjects or material formats, with some overlapping in and among series. The original state of McWhorter's papers is lost.
Many folders exhibit a mixture of items and subjects.
No hard and fast rule governed placement of documents into series. Manuscript and historical research material is also scattered throughout the collection. The descriptive inventory is not completely indexed. The essential documents and subjects are described, but some items are not noted in the finding aid. To find out more about this collection, click here for the link to Historical Photographs .