The slides were transferred from the Stillinger Herbarium in the University of Idaho’s College of Natural Resources to Special Collections and Archives in January 2012. Nothing is known of the provenance of the slides, but research indicates that some slides were taken as part of a research project conducted in the Selway Game Preserve by the University of Idaho School of Forestry in 1938.

In 1938, University of Idaho master’s student Willard Leslie Robinette conducted research (funded in part by the U.S. Forest Service) in the Selway Game Preserve (now part of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness Area in north-central Idaho) to learn the habits of elk in the preserve, to identify plant species grazed by elk, and to point out the need of minerals in the diet of elk.

Robinette’s findings were published in 1939 in his thesis, A Study of the Range Habits of Elk on the Selway Game Preserve during the summer of 1938. Included in the thesis are photographic prints taken during Robinette’s fieldwork. A good number of matching images can be found among the Stillinger Herbarium glass lantern slides collection.