DISCOVER / ARCHIVE COLLECTION
HISTORIC DOCUMENTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
There are hundreds of thousands of historic documents and photographs in the Museum’s Archival Collection. The Boulder Historical Society was founded in 1944. A. A. “Gov” Paddock, publisher of the Daily Camera, began gathering historical material from the community in 1927 and continued through his lifetime of 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 Archival Collection materials.
The Archival 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 an 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 Archival 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 photograph significant to Boulder that you are interested in donating to the Museum, please see our donation information page.