R. C. Halliday and Company Letters from Idaho
Content Description
This manuscript group contains 85 handwritten letters and orders sent to R.C. Halliday of Dillon, Montana, by the hotel and saloon owners of Camas, Idaho, between the years 1885 and 1893. The bulk of the letters were written in 1890 and 1891; there are no letters in 1892.
Camas, formerly known as Lava, is located in Bingham County, Idaho, 60 miles north of Blackfoot. It was settled in 1879 and its population at the time of these letters was 250. The gazetteers and business directories for the period list only four of the eleven correspondents: Adams, M.H., hotel and confectionery; Paris, W.R., saloon, Monroe, Thomas, Saloon; Miller and Co., saloon. Another correspondent, Florence Adams, was the sister of Mr. Halliday.
Of the ten additional letters, only one is from Camas. Seven are from Salmon, with two from Idaho Falls (one under its earler name of Eagle Rock).
The goods Halliday supplied included beer, cider, whiskey, lemonette, cigars, cigarettes, and occasionally rum, gin, sherry, blackberry, smoking tobacco, and cigarette papers.
Dates
- Creation: 1885-1893
Creator
- R.C. Halliday and Company (Organization)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Extent
0.5 Cubic Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Ninety five letters, most from Camas, Idaho, ordering supplies of beer, cider, whisky, cigarettes, cigars, etc.
Arrangement
The correspondence, which was in no apparent order when received, was placed in chronological order. The ten additional letters are in chronological order in a separate folder.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The 85 items of correspondence from Camas, Idaho, to R.C. Halliday of Dillon, Montana, were purchased from Charles Apfelbaum, New York, by the University of Idaho Library on March 21, 1988. It was processed by Judith Nielsen in June 1988. In July 1994, ten additional letters, a majority of which were from Salmon, Idaho, were purchased from Michael Vinson, Austin Texas. The new purchase was added to the original group and the inventory was revised by Ms. Nielsen in March 1995.
- Title
- Guide to R. C. Halliday and Company Letters from Idaho
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Judith Nielsen; updated by Sara Szobody in 2022.
- Date
- 1995
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Repository Details
Part of the University of Idaho Library, Special Collections and Archives Repository