Collection consists of approximately 630 cased photographs, including daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes (also called ferrotypes) dating from approximately 1840-1900. The photographs are primarily portraits of early migrants to Oregon and the western United States. Also represented are early Oregon street and residential scenes.

Collection consists of one daguerreotype portrait of spouses Hiram Smith and Hannah Smith, taken in approximately 1855. The Smiths came to Portland, Oregon, in 1851, and later purchased the land that would become Fairview, Oregon. Hannah Smith laid out the Fairview townsite in 1889.

Collection of portraits related to the family of William Gladstone Steel, dating from approximately 1859 to 1927. Steel advocated for the establishment of Crater Lake National Park and federal management of Oregon’s forests.