Earle R. Forrest papers

This collection is organized into two subgroups: Papers and Photographs.

The Papers in the first subgroup include biographical information; a photocopy of Earle R. Forrest's diary from June 24, 1902 - September 27, l926, covering the same times that he was taking photographs and traveling in the West; correspondence, chiefly regarding Forrest's publications; drafts of 26 of his manuscripts, including Bloody Trails of the Old Southwest and Adventures in Navajoland; newspaper articles written for the Coconino Sun (Flagstaff) in 1943; and a journal article which appeared in The Journal of Arizona History in 1965. Most of Forrest's manuscripts in this collection pertain to Arizona and the Southwest, and many of the photographs that he took while in this area illustrated his publications.

The black-and-white photographs in the second subgroup cover the years 1902-1929. The bulk of them are mounted and deal with Forrest's travels in the West, especially his visits among the Indians of Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. The mounted photographs are chronicled by numbers on the reverse side which correspond to the numbers in two indexes prepared by Forrest for easy identification.

Other photographs outside the range of the numbers in the indexes, unmounted photographs, and other unidentified photographs have been divided into subject areas.

The group of 160 oversize items represents primarily Indians of Arizona and New Mexico. Again, these items have been grouped into subject areas. Also included in this subgroup are 17 glass plate negatives of Arizona birds and 18 miscellaneous negatives, primarily of Indians, as identified by Earle R. Forrest on their negative sleeves. Many of the oversize photographs were used in Earle R. Forrest's book, With a Camera in Old Navajoland.

Although the indexes also detail pictures taken in the Pennsylvania area, those photographs are not part of this collection. There is little documentation in this collection of Forrest's career as a civil engineer or newspaper reporter. Additional segments of the Earle R. Forrest Collection are housed in two places: the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh. The Museum of Northern Arizona has 36 photograph record books, 15 diaries and diary-like books, and 14 field notebooks of photographs which are a part of Earle R. Forrest's collection. It also has 8,190 additional glass plates and negatives.