Fort Collins Public Library Local History Archive

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The reading room in the old Ft. Collins Public Library
The reading room in the
old Ft. Collins Public Library.

Finding Aids

Finding Aids (descriptive guides, inventories, and indexes) have been created by the Local History Archive to establish physical control over our collections. Carol Bering Clemons, Reference Librarian, created a Finding Aids Reference Manual in 1996 for the Archive's maps and vertical files; Marion Jones, Peggy Shaughnessy, and Mark Grigsby created the web pages from this manual. Elinor Blackard created the Special Collections finding aid and web page. These aids are most frequently used in performing research on the History of Your Home, Genealogy, and Environmental Assessments. In general, the contents of these collections are not on-line. However, selected information from these collections may appear in database or text format under the categories of Topics, Tours, and Search that are found at the top of this web page and every web page on this site. The Collections Descriptions will provide detailed information on the on-line information.
The following Finding Aids are available on the internet:

Vertical Files: Contain ephemera, manuscripts, newspaper articles, reports, building survey forms, etc. that refer to events, subjects, and people pertaining to Fort Collins, Larimer County, and Colorado history from pre-history to the present. The Vertical Files are divided into three categories: Biographical, Subject, and Ephemera.

Special Collections: Include extensive collections of written materials and scrapbooks that pertain to a particular family, business, or organization. The collections are stored in archival boxes on-site as well as off-site.

Map Collection: Includes all of the maps stored in the Local History Archive. Aerial photographs are cataloged in the photograph collection and are not included in this finding aid.

Photograph Collection: Includes photographs from the Historical, Coloradoan, and Miller Collections that have been filed by subject and/or place.

The Archive also has a collection of City Directories that dates from 1902-Present. The directories for 1902-1976 are on microfilm in the Reference area of the library. Some directories do not have the listing by street addresses; therefore the creation of databases for these directories has become a priority.