Idaho Periodicals, Newspapers, and Manuscript Collections
This entry was originally written by Dwight A. Radford for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
Periodicals
Two major periodicals are published in Idaho. The first is the Idaho Genealogical Society Quarterly, published by the Idaho Genealogical Society. This publication contains many articles of historical and genealogical value. The second publication is Idaho Yesterdays: The Quarterly Journal of the Idaho State Historical Society, an excellent source for a wide range of historical articles, including many concerning ethnic Idaho.
Newspapers
The Idaho State Historical Society has all available newspapers published in the state on microfilm. The society's website has an extensive inventory of newspapers in its collections. The inventory is by city, newspaper title, county, and dates available. Most of the society's newspaper collection is available through interlibrary loan.
Manuscripts
The Idaho State Historical Society has large record collections that are open to the public. Because of limited time and staff, there are limitations on mail requests. The staff is willing to search card indexes for particular names and will make photocopies of material for which a specific citation has been provided. However, they are not capable of extensive research in their archive or manuscript collections.
From 1935 to 1939, the Works Projects Administration (WPA) assembled material on biographies, reminiscences, narrative accounts, diaries, and documents pertinent to the history of Idaho. This WPA collection, MS 70, is indexed and available at the Idaho State Historical Society.
Another indexed collection at the Idaho State Historical Society is a Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) collection of pioneer reminiscences, biographies, brief histories of Boise Basin towns, and other subjects relating to Idaho's territorial history. This collection is accessed under MS 455. The Pioneer chapter of the DAR compiled this collection between 1908 and 1934. The remainder of the manuscripts at the Idaho State Historical Society consists of over 2,000 collections, including 150 state and local governmental agencies, 600 large and 800 minor manuscript collections. Many collections relate primarily to Idaho and its history. Files of attorneys, defunct banks, labor organizations, lumber companies, ranches, merchants, church councils, mining companies, and newspapers comprise most of the non-government materials. These are indexed by individual or company name and to some extent by subject in the society's manuscript guide.
The Joyce Dice Owen Collection is on file at the FHL. This collection consists of Idaho genealogies extracted from the Idaho Daily Statesman, Boise, Idaho.
