Archives News

Featured image for “2021-2022 in the Utah State Digital Archives”
August 8, 2022

2021-2022 in the Utah State Digital Archives

The Utah State Digital Archives contains collections from records of enduring value online and is free to the public! It leverages mass digitization and partnerships to meet patron needs and maintain archival context and original order. With worldwide online access, you have the ability to do research from anywhere while the Utah State Archives efficiently fulfills its mission “to provide
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April 11, 2022

New Discoveries in the Archives: A Question of Self-Defense

This blog post was written by McKenzie Wood, a 2022 AS-L Outreach Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. She is in her master’s program for Library and Information Science at St. John’s University in Queens, New York and is particularly interested in criminal justice. On September 9, 1891, Adolf F. Kohler was shot and killed by local
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March 12, 2022

Views from the Road: Highway 89

While not as well known or celebrated as Route 66, Highway 89 is a defining artery of tourism and exploration in the western United States. Traveling from the high mountains of Montana to the low deserts of Arizona, Highway 89 passes through (or is adjacent to) seven national parks, including Saguaro, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, and
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February 8, 2022

2002 Olympic Records

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Olympic Games in Salt Lake City! As the repository for government records, the Utah State Archives has a wonderful collection of documents related to this historic event. Let’s take a look… Series 26017 – Governor Leavitt 2K2 Program Records 2K2 was created by Governor Michael Leavitt as a non-profit organization to
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January 24, 2022

Grateful Thanks

Though only with the Utah State Archives in a part-time position for just over two years, Maren Peterson contributed to numerous projects and multiple programs in that time. Maren joined us with experience in historical records and indexing from Brigham Young University in October 2019. As she moves onto another job, we wanted to recognize and share with you some of the
Featured image for “New Digital Collection: Colorado River Compact Records”
January 5, 2022

New Digital Collection: Colorado River Compact Records

November 24, 2022 will mark the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Colorado River Compact. In the eleven months between January and November of 1922, multiple meetings were held between federal and western state representatives that resulted in the Colorado River Compact. Over the course of its history, the legal framework that has emerged to manage development of the
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December 30, 2021

2021 Year in Review

As we end another year, we wanted to take a moment to reflect and share some of the good work that our team at the Utah State Archives and Records Service did in the past twelve months to ensure the ongoing care and management of the public records that we hold in trust for the citizens of Utah. In 2021…
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December 27, 2021

Early Utah County Marriage Records Now Online

In Utah, nearly all marriage applications and licenses or similar records have remained in county clerk offices. The Utah State Archives has limited copies on microfilm (most before about 1900).  A few years ago we were excited to receive marriage license applications from Utah County that were more than one hundred years old. Our Local Government archivist Alan Barnett oversaw
Featured image for “Uncovering History: Dr. William D. Reeve Through The Years”
November 3, 2021

Uncovering History: Dr. William D. Reeve Through The Years

This blog post was written by Eric Schubert, a 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. He is a junior at Elizabethtown College and working on his history and political science degree. In today’s day and age, various historical databases can tell us so much about the lives of those who lived before us. By picking a record
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October 6, 2021

Eugenics in Twentieth-Century Utah

This blog post was written by Jack Tingey, a 2021 Intern at the Utah State Archives and Records Service. Jack graduated from BYU with a BA in history and an emphasis on 19th century American history. In the spring of 1927, Esau Walton awaited forced sterilization under Utah’s eugenics laws. In May of that year, the state corrections board had ruled