William Andrews Clark Jr. was born in Montana, and one of the “foundation” collections at the library is a large archive focusing on Montana and the West. The original 1924 purchase contains some 1,890 bound volumes; 2,832 pamphlets, magazines, extracts from magazines, and documents; 225 maps; 123 pictures; 147 unbound newspapers; and four books of clippings. There are also three files and boxes of manuscripts: letters, legal papers, mementos, and the like. The letter files contain correspondence to and from Clark, Thomas Francis Meagher, Wilbur F. Sanders, and Charles N. Kessler. The Kessler series consists almost entirely of answers to Kessler’s queries about books, manuscripts, persons, and events. Altogether the files contain a good amount of bibliographical and historical data on Montana and the Northwest. Scattered throughout the collection is an appreciable amount of Californiana, as well as books by and about Lewis and Clark.

Highlights

• manuscript diary of the Spanish invasion of Tiburón Island, 1750
• Francisco Palóu’s Relación histórica de la vida y apostólicas tareas del venerable Padre Fray Junípero Serra (Mexico, 1787)
• Thomas J. Dimsdale’s The Vigilantes of Montana (Virginia City, M.T., 1866)

Selected Searches

• UCLA Library Catalog: Clark holdings
  • printed materials related to Montana
• Online Archive of California: finding aids for archival collections
  • materials related to the settlement and history of the state of Montana
  • collection pertaining to the Society of the Framers of the Constitution of the State of Montana as well as written attempts to compile historical accounts about Montana
  • images of Montana and the West, 1800–1919
  • photographs and textual materials generated by artist and writer John Clifford Cowles, documenting his time in Montana and his career in southern California