The Marcus and Narcissa Whitman Collection: Updating and Improving Collection Guides in OHS’s Research Library

Abstract:The staff in the Oregon Historical Society’s research library began a project in 2021 o update and improve selected collection guides for older collections. This work began as an effort to migrate existing collection guides into a new database but also provided an opportunity to reconsider descriptive practices in collection guides that might exclude marginalized people or present information in an incomplete, inaccurate, or harmful way. In this Research Note, OHS archivist Jeffrey Hayes describes the work to update the Marcus and Narcissa Whitman collection guide, which was informed by current best practices in writing library description as well as recent scholarship that has re-examined the Whitmans’ legacy.