Posted on June 7, 2021

Henry Harmon Spalding, whose life as a missionary to the Nez Perce Indians was one of trial and tribulation, failed at most things in his life. However, his Idaho ministry had some significant accomplishments. Arriving at Lapwai Creek where it flows into the Clearwater River in 1836, Spalding recognized the... [Read More]

Posted on May 31, 2021

Idaho politics during the territorial period were as convoluted and Byzantine as any before or since. Political and regional factionalism pitted the Democrats and the Mormons against the newly emerging Republicans and the Northern secessionists. When the Mormon and Democrat contingent lost control of the territory in 1882, ambitious Republicans... [Read More]

Posted on May 3, 2021

The interlocking relationship between Native Americans and the U.S. Army in the intermountain frontier is exemplified by this authorization for the Chief of the Lemhi Bannocks to purchase or trade for ammunition on the eve of the Bannock Indian War of 1878. Tin Doy, or Tendoy, maintained a policy of... [Read More]

Posted on March 22, 2021

At the high end of summer, many seek the cooling pursuit of piscatorial pleasures. These youngsters, with their net full of steelhead, were captured on glass by John B. Wilson, a professional photographer in Lewiston, Idaho, between 1915 and 1920. In the background can be seen a river steamer at... [Read More]

Posted on March 15, 2021

It was in 1880 that the age of steamboat travel in the Coeur d’Alenes of northern Idaho began. For over a decade steamboats formed a valuable link between the gold and silver mining region and the rest of the world as it quickly became apparent that the key to the... [Read More]

Posted on March 8, 2021

The alliance between athletics and academics, uneasy at best, is nowhere more exemplified than in this scene from the University of Idaho’s early history. In March 1906, fire of suspicious origin destroyed the primary building on the university campus, the Administration Building, holding offices, classrooms, and the library. When M.... [Read More]

Posted on March 1, 2021

Jennie Eva Hughes, Class of 1899, was the first African-American to graduate from the University of Idaho. She was born on July 20, 1879, in Washington, D.C. Little is known about Jennie’s father, Alexander Hughes, but it is known that her mother, Louisa, married Lewis E. Crisemon shortly after Jennie... [Read More]

Posted on February 19, 2021

When Fumiko wrote to her Uncle George Shitamae in September 1942, the two of them were caught up in the domestic backlash of World War Two. He had been picked up in Seattle after Pearl Harbor and interned in New Mexico. After many hearings, he was not to be released... [Read More]

Posted on February 8, 2021

The close of World War II meant great changes for the University of Idaho, as it did for the country as a whole. For the first time in nearly a decade, military uniforms were not the most common form of apparel. The return to university studies was accelerated by the... [Read More]

Posted on February 1, 2021

In this letter to a Lewiston autograph collector, W. C. Handy reminisces about traveling to Lewiston with Mahara’s Minstrels. He pinpoints 1896 “when McKinley and Bryan were the republican and democratic nominees for president.” Handy joined Mahara’s in August 1896, according to his autobiography, Father of the Blues (1941), and... [Read More]

Posted on January 25, 2021

Winter storms in the mountains of Northern Idaho often bring transportation to a standstill. The railroads first attacked the problem with human power. Labor gangs, Japanese in one case, would be sent out with shovels to clear the ravines of snowdrifts that could reach thirty or more feet deep. Later,... [Read More]

Posted on January 18, 2021

The tropical paradise pictured on this sheet music cover is part of the tangled history of the University of Idaho’s alma mater and the state song of Idaho. The music for this popular song was adapted by Alice Bessee to fit words by McKinley Helm, both University of Idaho students,... [Read More]

Posted on January 11, 2021

Pep rallies and half-time events have a long tradition on the university campus; one of the earlier manifestations was the Harvard Yell Contest. In 1919, the Harvard Clubs of the University of Idaho and nearby Washington State College jointly offered a prize to the school “showing superior sportsmanship and entertainment... [Read More]

Posted on January 4, 2021

With the new year, we thought we’d take a little time to reflect on some blog posts of the past. These posts were originally a part of an earlier version of a blog from the 1990s and early 2000s, known as Digital Memories. We thought the launch of the Idaho... [Read More]

Posted on December 8, 2020

There are, it turns out, several University of Idaho seals. The first to be documented was unanimously adopted by the Board of Regents on April 9, 1908: “In the matter of adopting a design for a new seal for the University, Mr. Vaughn appeared before the board and presented a design... [Read More]

Posted on December 7, 2020

Early-day Boise’s transportation problems were to be solved by extending a branch line to Nampa to meet the transcontinental main line in 1887 after a five-year delay. By 1891, electric trolleys were seen as necessary and added to the mix. By 1902, both Nampa and Caldwell attempted to displace Boise as... [Read More]

Posted on September 11, 2014

“Mail call, mail call.” These words have long caused the heart of many a homesick wayfarer to quicken in anticipation. The conveniences of our modern postal system were unknown to early travelers passing through the rugged Idaho frontier. If old legends are true, ingenious journeyers devised their own system of... [Read More]

Posted on September 4, 2014

More mining film preserved 16mm color film (pos.) Kodachrome,  approx.  300 ft. on a 7" reel, 3 splices. Stibnite; Bunker Hill, Burke Canyon.  1950 Stibnite, Idaho and the Bradley Mining Co. scenes from 1950, showing surface operations from a high vantage point, vans, a bulldozer at work, much on the... [Read More]

Posted on September 3, 2014

More mining film preserved 16mm color film (pos.) Kodachrome,  approx.  300 ft. on a 7" reel, 1 splice. Page Mine; Bunker Hill; Yankee Fork.  (n.d., but c. late 1940s) Much footage of the Page Mine sawmill, with panoramic views of the town and mining site, and people. The Bunker Hill... [Read More]

Posted on September 1, 2014

Historic mining films from Idaho’s Silver Valley Mining District have been preserved thanks to a 2007 Partnership Grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) awarded to the University of Idaho Library’s Special Collections & Archives.  The original moving pictures were filmed in 1926 and 1930 by Harry Webb Marsh,... [Read More]

Posted on July 2, 2014

In April 1936, the University of Idaho campus celebrated an unusual event when President Neale cancelled classes. The occasion: President Franklin D. Roosevelt had just designated, at Congress’ behest, General Edward R. Chrisman as Commandant of Cadets and Lecturer in Military Science and Tactics Emeritus for the “remainder of his... [Read More]

Posted on July 1, 2014

Before there were roads or rails, goods were shipped by boat or barge and then on by horse or mule. As the nation’s transportation network developed, only the most inaccessible places continued their dependence on pack trains for supplies. In many of Idaho’s remote places, the pack train era lasted... [Read More]

Posted on June 29, 2014

A century ago, in the days before corporate entertainment found its mass market and spread from the cities to rural areas, people made their own fun. They took walks, went to the park or to the river, played cards, put on home-grown entertainments, had picnics, and visited their friends and... [Read More]

Posted on June 28, 2014

The Writings of Henry David Thoreau [Read More]

Posted on June 26, 2014

Idaho music score [Read More]

Posted on June 24, 2014

Over eighty years ago, the Civilian Conservation Corps was established (as the Emergency Conservation Work agency, its official name until 1937). Ten days after the legislation was introduced in Congress, as part of President Roosevelt’s depression-era recovery schemes, the Secretary of Agriculture sent out telegrams to governors of each affected... [Read More]

Posted on June 23, 2014

Clyde Pangborn and Nick Mamer (pilots) [1] [Read More]

Posted on June 22, 2014

The Literature of the Lewis and Clark Expedition: A Bibliography and Essays [Read More]

Posted on June 21, 2014

200 poems [Read More]

Posted on June 20, 2014

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Posted on June 19, 2014

Ootheca Wolleyana [Read More]

Posted on June 17, 2014

Heart of Midlothian [Read More]

Posted on June 16, 2014

Nez Perces Indian War Series, '77 [Read More]

Posted on June 15, 2014

William E. Borah letter [Read More]

Posted on June 14, 2014

Moscow citizens [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

George B. Fraser letter [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

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Posted on June 13, 2014

Ridenbaugh Hall, University of Idaho. [58-17] [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

McCroskey Letter [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

At the 40th anniversary convocation in October 1932, Congressman Burton French, class of ‘04, proposed that the University create a memorial to the early days of the University by restoring the stone steps from the original Administration Building. When that building burned in 1906, the site was cleared for the... [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

Library, University of Idaho. Main reading room. [201-26] [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

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Posted on June 13, 2014

Bill (William) Kiele letter [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

Homer Pound letter [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

Freshman bonfire [2] [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

University of Idaho class of 1899 [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

Earl J. Larrison [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

forest fire ruins in East Wallace, 1910 [Read More]

Posted on June 13, 2014

Babylonian tablets [Read More]