This collection includes materials related to the research and teacning of College of Puget Sound (now University of Puget Sound) history professor Calvin Brewster Coulter, Jr. (1915–1995). Materials include a manuscript, photographs, negatives, and fruit labels from his unpublished work, The Big Y Country. This work documents the history of Yakima County, Washington. Also included are records from the University of Puget Sound Curriculum Committee and Graduate Council, lecture notes from a course on the Pacific Slope of the American West, his framed doctoral diploma, and 204 lantern slides that may have been used for teaching by Coulter.

The majority of the slides in the first three boxes relate to the US Civil War period (April 12, 1861–May 9, 1865). The fourth box contains slides relating to missionary work in China with a variety of images of Chinese people, places, and work-related activities. The remaining original annotated envelopes in which the slides were previously housed have been retained, although the handwriting is difficult to read.

Lantern slides are transparent photographs made on glass that have to be viewed with the aid of an item called a magic lantern. The magic lantern was an early precursor to the slide projector. The 17th century saw the invention of the first lantern slides. They were created by hand painting illustrations onto glass. Light was then projected through the glass. Photographic lantern slides such as those in this collection weren’t used until ten years after the invention of photography in 1849. Slides consist of two pieces of glass that are pressed together. One piece of glass holds the image, while the other piece protects the image from degradation. The slides in this collection are 3.5 in x 4 in size.

Most of the slides are in black and white, but some slides have been colored using paint. Depending on the age of the lantern slides, the paint is probably transparent oil paint, watercolor, or aniline dyes. Color specifically designed for lantern slides wasn’t developed until the 20th century, which is later than the dated slides in this collection.