Papers of an Oregon missionary, educator, scientist, and publicist who played a key role in establishing Oregon's public school system. Includes letters of George H. Atkinson and his wife, Nancy Bates Atkinson, as well as speeches, journals, and ephemera.

Papers of Alvin T. Smith (1802-1888), including his diaries, and records and correspondence relating to his tenure as postmaster at Tualatin, Oregon Territory (later Forest Grove, Oregon). Smith emigrated to the Oregon Territory in 1840 as a lay missionary, and moved to what would become Forest Grove in 1841. He served as postmaster in the 1850s, and was one of the founders of Tualatin Academy (later Pacific University).