About the Western History Collection
The Western History Collection was founded in 1935 by Malcolm Glenn Wyer, Denver's fifth City Librarian, who acted on a suggestion from the novelist Willa Cather. The library already had a reputation for openness: John Cotton Dana, its first City Librarian in 1889, had championed open stacks at a time when most American libraries kept patrons away from the shelves. By the time Wyer began collecting, the Denver Public Library had become the leading repository in a sparsely settled Rocky Mountain region, and the new collection grew into one of the foremost special collections on the American West.
A 1995 merger with an older department created the Western History and Genealogy Department, which today operates as Special Collections and Archives. Its public area fills the entire fifth floor of the Central Library, a Michael Graves building that opened in 1995. The circular reading room is dominated by "Symbol of the West," a Graves sculpture assembled from reclaimed sawmill beams pegged together and rising dozens of feet above the tables; visitors have compared it to an oil derrick, a mine headframe, and a grain silo.
The department has a second home. The Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library, built in the Five Points neighborhood in 2003 with the backing of Mayor Wellington Webb, holds a museum and a research collection on the African American experience in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain West, including Mayor Webb's own papers and several hundred manuscript collections from local businesses, churches, schools, and civic organizations.
Collections and Research Services
The holdings are organized into named collections: the Western History Collection itself, the Genealogy Collection, Manuscripts, Photography, the Western Art Collection, Building and Neighborhood History, the Conservation Collection, the Douglas Collection of Fine Printing, and the 10th Mountain Division Resource Center. For house researchers, the Building and Neighborhood History materials and the photograph files are the usual starting points; genealogists will find a nationally recognized collection on the West alongside extensive family history resources. Librarians and archivists offer individual help at the reading room desk.
Much can be done before you arrive. Digitized photographs and documents are searchable at digital.denverlibrary.org, and manuscript finding aids are posted at archives.denverlibrary.org. Researchers who cannot visit can request copies and reproductions through the library's Copies & Reproductions service; photo reproductions are priced on a separate pricing and permissions page. Group tours and class visits are welcome at both locations with at least two weeks of notice. Our guides to finding old photos of a house or neighborhood and using old city directories show how to combine these resources.
Planning Your Visit
Special Collections and Archives is open seven days a week: Monday through Thursday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM, Friday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Archival materials stop being pulled 45 minutes before closing, so plan requests accordingly. Call (720) 865-1821 or email history@denverlibrary.org with questions. The Central Library sits at the southern edge of the Civic Center district, within a few blocks of the Colorado State Archives, History Colorado, and the Denver Art Museum, and can be reached by bus or the free downtown MallRide.
The Wilma J. Webb Archives, Research & Reading Room at Blair-Caldwell, 2401 Welton Street, is open Monday through Friday from 12:00 to 4:00 PM; research appointments are made by calling (720) 865-2401 or emailing askblaircaldwell@denverlibrary.org. Current hours, parking details, and events are posted at history.denverlibrary.org. Nearby, the Molly Brown House Museum is a short walk east on Pennsylvania Street, and the Colorado Railroad Museum is in Golden.
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