Manuscript Collection

The manuscripts collection contains nearly 8,000,000 items dating between 1798 and the present. Included are original diaries and correspondence of individuals and the records of businesses and organizations, including service, political, community activist, and women's clubs.

The main focus of the collection is Washington Territory and State, but it includes the Pacific Northwest and the West as it places Washington in the larger setting of the Westward movement and Western development. In the collection you will find letters from the California Gold Rush, letters to and from soldiers in World Wars I and II and other conflicts, correspondence of the famous and, more importantly, from the "ordinary" people who helped develop the state. There are diaries from people whose lives were largely confined to their communities, but whose experiences reflect the lives of all men and women and give us great insight into the joys and frustrations of life. History doesn't stop, so the Society is interested in recent documents as well as those of the pioneers.

Researchers use the manuscript collections for many reasons: to understand life in both the distant and recent past; to document trends and social movements, and to reveal the details of grassroots history.

Additional Information:

Thurston County Pioneers - The Washington State Library has a collection of digitized manuscripts containing biographical information about 210 people who immigrated to or were living in Thurston County, Washington Territory before 1870.

Washington State University Manuscript Collections - This collection is rich in documents relating to exploration, settlement, and development of the Palouse Country, the Inland Empire, the Columbia Basin, and the Pacific Northwest.

The Thomas Jefferson Papers - The largest collection of original Thomas Jefferson documents in the world, including correspondence, commonplace books, financial account books, and manuscript volumes.