University of the PACIFIC

The University of the Pacific Library recently completed a major digital archive allowing access to the correspondence of naturalist John Muir (1838-1914). This project was managed in partnership with the University of California-Berkeley's Bancroft Library, and was funded with an $111,181 Library Services and Technology Act grant from the California State Library.

More than 6,500 letters to and from John Muir can be viewed on the web, including full-text transcriptions that can be searched as well as viewed alongside images of the original letters. Muir's correspondence can be viewed at the Digital Collections Web site of the Pacific Library's Holt-Atherton Special Collections department, as well as the Web pages of the California Digital Library's Online Archive of California and Calisphere.

"John Muir's correspondence offers a unique first-hand perspective on his thoughts and experiences, as well as those of his correspondents, which include many notable figures in scientific, literary, and political circles of the 19th and early 20th centuries," said Shan Sutton, associate dean and head of Special Collections at Pacific. "Online access to his letters will enable people around the world to learn more about Muir and his impact on important issues such as the development of the National Park System and the evolution of the environmental movement."

The University of the Pacific Library's Holt-Atherton Special Collections department is home to the John Muir Papers, which account for over 70 percent of existing Muir documents. This collection is heavily used by scholars and authors, and was featured in the recent Ken Burns film "The National Parks: America's Best Idea."

The new digital archive supplements other papers that were previously posted on the Digital Collections web site, including Muir's journals, photographs, and drawings.