A sketch by Nicholas Point of the St. Francis Xavier Mission on the Willamette from The DeSmet Papers
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General Description: Manuscripts
The manuscripts collections in MASC are extensive, and especially rich in documents relating to the exploration, settlement, and development of the Palouse Country, the Inland Empire, the Columbia Basin, and the Pacific Northwest.
Prominent among the collection for research in Pacific Northwest topics are:
- The DeSmet Papers, which document the activities of a nineteenth-century missionary-priest in the region.
- The McWhorter Collection, which contains a wealth of material relating to the Nez Perce and Yakama Indians.
- Papers from regional judges such as William Inman, and political leaders including former Speaker of the House Thomas Foley.
- Archives of Pacific Northwest publishing companies, which contain the historical records of a number of regional publishers, among them Madrona Publishers and Copper Canyon Press.
Manuscript collections in MASC range in size from small, distinctive groups of personal letters and literary/historical manuscripts to larger collections of family and political papers, and entire business and corporate archives.
Some notable collections are:
- The Regla Papers, which span three centuries of Mexican history.
- The correspondence and manuscripts of modern British writers, including the Sitwells, Roger Fry, and Leonard Woolf.
- The Westin Hotels and Resorts Archives.
- The Paul Philemon Kies Papers, an extensive collection of original autographs, including original manuscripts (holographs, autographs, etc.) of actors, composers, singers, statesmen, educators, writers, political and military figures, and civic leaders.
Audio Collections
The MASC manuscript collections also include aural history. Nez Perce music is represented in the Loran Olsen Papers and the Nez Perce Music Collection Fieldwork Materials. The Charles and Elizabeth Peck Collection documents a segment of coastal Washington Indian life. The Frank Chin Oral History Collection documents Japanese-American resistance to internment during W.W.II. The history and experiences of blacks in the Pacific Northwest can be studied in the Black Oral History Collection. The papers of 20th century European and American composers such as Elizabeth Gyring, Solomon Pimsleur, and Hans Rosbaud, are available in the Moldenhauer music archives.
Collection Guides
"Collection Guide" and "finding aid" are generic terms to describe various guides, inventories, registers, lists and indexes that provide information about materials within individual manuscript/photograph collections or archival record groups. These guides provide an overview of specific collections in varying degrees of descriptive detail.
You may browse our collection guides in two ways:
Please note that more resources are available in MASC than are indicated by this list of collection guides. To be as comprehensive as possible in searching for material in MASC's collections, use these resources as well:
Small Manuscript Collections
These small collections have been processed, but do not have collection guides. For access, search by keyword or browse our online listing. The list is organized by "cage" number, which corresponds to the call number in the Griffin online catalog. Brief descriptions of these collections are included in Griffin.
List of Small Manuscript Collections
Accession Register
Our accession register is a listing of collections that have been acquired by MASC but have not yet been processed. The primary access tool for these collections is the MASC accession register. In some cases there are records for unprocessed collections in the Griffin online catalog, but collection guides have not yet been created for these materials.
Accession Register
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