Between them, the Brigham City Museum of Art & History and the Box Elder Museum of Natural History have more than 12,000 works of art, photographs, artifacts, archival documents, and specimens in their collections.
But how do we get these items?
In the vast majority of cases, items in our collection have been donated to us by their owners.
This means that with our historical collections, the history of families who have been here, consistently, over the centuries, are more likely to be represented in our collections than those who were here briefly in the nineteenth century. And because we curate exhibitions out of what is available in our collections, exhibitions are also more likely to cover those people.
But never fear! You can help remedy some of the gaps in our collection. Some specific themes we’re looking for, to help inform future exhibitions, include items related to the following:
- Bushnell General Military Hospital
- Food in Box Elder County – including cookbooks, local recipes, aprons, food-related items, photographs, etc.
- Railroad history – including the transcontinental railroad, but also local railroads and trolleys (exhibition scheduled for 2019)
- ATK/Thiokol history – including letters, photographs, objects related to them, etc.
- Schools history – the collection is strong on Box Elder High, Central School, the Intermountain Indian School, and Whittier School (only for about two decades around 1915), but is weak otherwise, despite the fact that our collection covers the County!
- Materials related to families/individuals who only lived in the area for a short time
- Materials related to families/individuals of Hispanic or Asian descent
You can view many of the more than 12,000 items already in our collection online at http://collections.boxeldermuseum.org
If you have something you’d like to inquire about donating, from the above list or otherwise, please contact Kaia Landon at the museum at 435-226-1439.