Archival Digitization Project
The Grand Canyon Historical Society is digitizing its collection of archival materials and there are some amazing and fun items to discover in our collection that is available to you online!
The Grand Canyon Historical Society Collection is physically housed in Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library Special Collections.
Through the assistance of archivists Amelia Swann, Patrick Conley, and Malia Runge, the generous donations of the Hayes family, funding from GCHS, and a grant from Arizona Humanities Society is able to put its collection online.
Come visit our fascinating collection. Here are a couple of quick examples to tantalize you:
One page letter from William Wallace Bass to Frank Polson on Polson Brothers letterhead in which Bass discusses the impending lawsuit by Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway against Ralph Cameron regarding the Bright Angel Trail. Bass describes his plan to prevent the lawsuit from going forward including his hope that Polson and Cameron can block it since they make up the majority of the Coconino County Board of Supervisors. Bass also mentions a potential sale of Cameron property.
At one time, Navajo Falls was the first prominent waterfall in Havasupai Canyon. Now called Old Navajo, the fall was made dry when a flood in August 2008 diverted the course of the water to the southeast. This is a great example of the hundreds of photographs one can find of places in and around the canyon as they looked over a century ago. Some have changed greatly over the years. Tourists visiting Navajo Falls today would be greeted with a very different sight.
Charles W. Gilmore was Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology at the United States National Museum. In October and November 1924, Gilmore and Samuel Hubbard, "honorary" Curator of Archaeology at the Oakland Museum, led a scientific expedition in Supai at the Grand Canyon to search for evidence of prehistoric man. Art Metzger signed on to assist the expedition, which was funded by oil magnate E. L. Doheny. The purpose and "findings" of this expedition and Edward Laurence Doheny himself are fascinating. The "discoveries" made on this expedition are often used to refute evolution, and the main character in the film There Will Be Blood is loosely based on Doheny.