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The specific generational scope of this collection is limited to the figures of Dorsey Syng Baker (known as D.S.), his subsequent wives, and his three sons. A small portion contains correspondence and records for Dorsey's parents-in-law, the Tibbetts. Throughout this collection are valuable records, correspondence, legal documents, and diaries relating many aspects of pioneer and early statehood life in the Pacific Northwest, especially for Portland, Oregon, and Walla Walla, Washington. The records include those for transportation, banking and commerce, agriculture, mining, and land acquisition and management, as represented by the efforts of Dorsey and his sons. Their activities and influence extended to the mid-twentieth century. In addition, there is a small collection of files kept by Baker family members on individual clients or associates. Overall, though the personal letters and diaries provide a few intimate insights, a substantial portion of the Baker Family Collection is a record of family businesses and political and legal interests. These diaries are a selection from the overall collection.

The collection consists of membership records and directories, deeds and abstracts, correspondence, annual reports and meeting minutes, records of the Peace United Church of Christ, ledger books, the Whitman Memorial service program, financial information, newspaper clippings and a journal, "Records of the First Congregational Church of Walla Walla Washington Territory", from the oldest Congregational Church in the state of Washington. These records are a selection from the overall collection.

Photographs of theatre productions at Whitman College, 1900-1999.

Thinking Digitally: Data & Culture (IDSC 230) was designed to interrogate the information, machines, and systems that structure our lives. Using the Whitman Campus and the Walla Walla community as a source of materials and a laboratory, students worked collaboratively to design critical research questions that could be answered using digital tools. Students investigated practical, ethical, intellectual, creative, and critical interactions between the digital and non-digital worlds through text manipulation, data visualization, and storytelling. The class explored systems of knowledge, used tools to structure and work with many kinds of data, and engaged with debates about digital research methodologies. A team of faculty and staff with expertise in a variety of fields designed the course, which was taught in the Spring of 2017.

• Sharon Alker, English
• Amy Blau, Instructional & Data Services Librarian
• Rachel George, Anthropology
• Sarah Hurlburt, French
• Emily Jones, German Studies & Environmental Humanities
• Colin Justin, Instructional & Learning Technologist for Humanities
• Justin Lincoln, Art
• Lydia McDermott, Composition & Director of the Center for Writing and Speaking
• Ben Murphy, Instructional & Research Librarian
• Mike Osterman, Director of Enterprise Technology
• Nico Parmley, Spanish
• Melissa Salrin, Archivist & Special Collections Librarian
• David Sprunger, Director of Instructional & Learning Technology

This collection consists of negatives and prints taken by Lester V. Hodgson. The photographs mainly document the flood on Mill Creek in Walla Walla, Washington that occurred between March 31 to April 1, 1931. Also included are photographs of agricultural scenes, a military parade and buildings and street scenes in Walla Walla, Washington. The collection includes a scrapbook containing photographs and postcards, primarily of natural disasters such as fires and floods that occurred in other parts of the United States and Hodgson's autobiography. These photographs are a selection from the overall collection.

The Pearsons Academy Records consists of printed materials including receipts, publicity, historical, and enrollment records related to what began as Whitman Academy (1882-1905) and later became Pearsons Academy (1905-1912). These photographs are a selection from the overall collection.

Students in REL 348 use materials in the Whitman College and Northwest Archives to investigate possible factors behind the secularization of Whitman College. When Whitman became a college in 1882, it very much functioned as a cog in the engine of an informal Protestant establishment that claimed that without the inculcation of Christian (i.e., Protestant) virtues, students would lack the necessary self-restraint that citizens in a self-governing republic required. After seminar discussions of the secondary sources that survey the social, intellectual, and institutional reasons that prompted universities and eventually colleges to buck the Protestant establishment and its hold upon the curriculum, students focus upon Whitman College and its history, choose topics for archival research, assemble and examine primary and secondary sources, formulate historical questions and thesis statements, and eventually produce a 20 to 25 page research paper. The goal of the course is to help students, particularly majors in Religion, graduate from writing short analytical papers characteristic of Whitman’s first-year Encounters and survey courses in Religion to writing a senior thesis, required of every major in the Religion Department.

The collection consists of the correspondence, journals, manuscripts, speeches and sermons of Henry Harmon Spalding. The collection also contains the writings of his wives, Eliza Hart Spalding and Rachel J. Smith Spalding. These items are a selection from the overall collection.

The Narrator was an independent newspaper created by Whitman college students.

The Whitman College Pioneer was a student-run newspaper that covered campus news, sports, arts, special events, and more. The Pioneer was published weekly during the academic year from 1896-2016. In 2016, the name of the paper was changed to the Whitman Wire.