Archives West Finding Aid

To some degree, these items are more properly regarded an three-dimensional museum objects than as manuscripts. That is to say, their form is of more interest than their contents. Nevertheless the records are not simply surviving specimens of l9th century bookkeeping, but also contain documentation of historic matters. This documentation is not simply of the small businesses which created the records, but, in some cases, of the communities in which they were located. For instance, the records of an unidentified general merchant in Vancouver, Washington contains many accounts with military personnel and may give some idea of the way of life among the professional military in the 1870s. In another case, the records of a grain dealer on the Snake River in Southeastern Washington contain actual documentation of events in the wheat trade which are otherwise little documented, despite the easy availability of gross statistical data about this trade.