DISCOVER / ARCHIVE COLLECTION
HISTORIC DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
There are hundreds of thousands historic documents and photographs in the Museum’s Archive Collection. The first items were collected by the Boulder Historical Society (founded in 1944). Then-publisher of the Daily Camera, A.A. “Gov” Paddock was instrumental in gathering historical material from the community; both at the inception of the collection, and on through decades of his lifetime service to the Historical Society and Museum. In the 1980s, the City of Boulder established the Carnegie Library for Local History, and a partnership was struck between the Museum and the Library. The Boulder Historical Society Collection was placed on permanent loan to the Carnegie Library in order to maximize public access to the collection. Since then, the Library has provided important services for the community by housing, cataloging, and providing public access to the Museum’s Archive Collection materials.
The Archive Collection is searchable via the Carnegie Library website. Many items have been digitized and are viewable online. All Library material with ‘BHS’ as part of the call number belong to Boulder Historical Society/Museum of Boulder and require the following credit line when used: Courtesy Carnegie Library for Local History/Museum of Boulder Collection.
Low-resolution, watermarked versions of select BHS images are available to view and download via the Carnegie Library website. The watermark serves as attribution. No permissions are necessary when using watermarked images from the Library website. To obtain a non-watermarked version, or higher resolution file, please complete Carnegie’s Photo Request process, including the Museum’s Use Agreement Form.
In addition to the Archive Collection, housed at the Carnegie Library for Local history, the Museum maintains an Artifact Collection. See the Artifact Collection page for more about the Museum’s collection of historic 3D objects.
If you have an object, document, or photo significant to Boulder that you are interested in donating to the Museum, please see our donation information page.