Western Americana
Western Americana offers students of American history and others interested in learning more about this country's growth a wide range of books and documents about the American west. This comprehensive microfiche collection spans the 18th through the early 20th centuries, and includes federal and state documents, directories, guidebooks, state and regional histories, memoirs, reminiscences and travel accounts, and conventional primary and secondary histories of the west.
Clark C. Spence and the four other prominent historians who compiled this collection set out to present researchers with firsthand accounts by the ordinary men and women who built the west --sodbusters, livery stable keepers, middle-class housewives. These personal narratives by people who directly observed the early western scene provide unique, vivid descriptions of the conditions
and events at the time.
These informative personal accounts are balanced throughout the collection with numerous works by professional historians, thus providing a complete overview of American history as the settled lands pushed closer and closer to the Pacific Ocean.
The Hekman Library owns the following components of this collection:
| Agriculture | Livestock Industry |
| Conservation & Use of Resources | Mormon Utah |
| Government & Politics | Other Ethnic Influences |
| Land & Water Questions of the Public Domain | Women of the West |
Within these sub-collections, researchers can explore such areas as accounts of early Anglo-American, French, and Spanish explorations in the west, personal narratives by fur trappers and traders, and more.
Items in this collection can be found though a subject search on WebCat using the search term Western Americana.