J. Neilson Barry was an Episcopal clergyman, born in Virginia about 1870. In the mid 1890's he made his first trip west, and eventually settled in Portland, Oregon. In October of 1947 he began corresponding with University of Idaho officials, including President J.E. Buchanan and librarians M. Belle Sweet and Lee Zimmerman, on the subject of Idaho history and geography and trying hard to sell the library HIS maps--presumably the only correct maps in existence.

His letters give strong suggestions for student projects, all of them utilizing his maps, and they deplore the lack of Idaho related documents in the library. Many of his letters are illustrated with small maps, and some have larger maps attached. To emphasize a particular sentence he would either draw over the typing with a colored pencil or draw a pointing finger at the sentence. Many of the letters are very repetitive, the same anecdotes told and complaints made in letter after letter. Some of the letters do, however, contain interesting information on early place-names and interesting bits of early Idaho history. In 1953 he began corresponding with two members of the Board of Regents, Marguerite Campbell of New Meadows, and J.L. McCarthy of Orofino. McCarthy apparently became alarmed at the "your library isn't any good" tone of the letters and wrote to President Buchanan who, as he did with most of the Barry letters, sent the letter to Mr. Zimmerman for a reply. he correspondence with Barry seems to have terminated in October 1958 when he gave the library some maps and the carbon copy of his unpublished book on Idaho Source Material.