About the Collection
The images in History of the American West are drawn from the more than 600,000 photographs in the holdings of the Western History and Genealogy Department at Denver Public Library. In 1997, the Denver Public Library won an award through the Library of Congress / Ameritech National Digital Library Competition to support the digitization of approximately 4,000 images that document the place of mining in the history of Colorado and the West and 3,500 that show the lives and culture of Native Americans from more than forty tribes living west of the Mississippi River. To these, the Denver Public Library has added approximately 23,000 additional photographs digitized as part of its large-scale Photodigitization Project.
These pictures tell many stories. The collection includes formal portraits of Indian chiefs as well as clothing, dwellings, and daily lives of Taos, Santa Clara, San Juan, and San Ildephonso pueblo Indians, and Ute, Crow, and Lakota peoples. Other pictures illustrate the place of mining in the history of Colorado and the West, from life in the wide open boom towns of Telluride, Cripple Creek, and Leadville to the national disgrace of the Ludlow coal field massacre. These photographs include images of mining technology; organized labor, labor unrest, and strikes; mining families and their daily lives; industrialists, union leaders, and politicians; and the domestic and public architecture of Colorado mining communities.
Among the other topics featured are early railroads, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show with Annie Oakley, the architecture of Denver, national parks, and ghost towns. Streetscapes and interiors illustrate daily life at the turn of the century. Colorado towns and western landscapes were recorded by local photographers. A group of photographs showing the Tenth Mountain Division ski troops in the Rocky Mountains and in Italy during World War II makes a unique contribution to this digital collection.
| Samples of the Diversity of the Collection |
| Diversity of American Indian Communities Represented | Top of Page |
Among the American Indian communities richly represented are: |
|
| Diversity of Subjects Photographed | Top of Page | |
| These pictures have been cataloged in detail, and the full list of subject headings used can be browsed. The sampling of search terms below reveals the extent and variety of the content of this collection. | ||
| Abandoned buildings | Gauchos | Parades |
| Adobe buildings | Laborers | Pottery |
| Amusement parks | Military Officers | Rock art |
| Annie Oakley | Miners' strike -- Cripple Creek | Shoshone Indians |
| Bathhouses | Miners' strike -- Ludlow | Skiing |
| Blankets | Missions | Ski troops |
| Buffalo Bill | Mountain Division, 10th | Wild West shows |
| Cavalry | Mules |
|