Photographs of Yosemite National Park, circa 1925, views of landscapes and Native Americans along the route taken by the Lewis and Clark Expedition, ca. 1880-1904, and miscellaneous images associated with Wheeler’s interest in western travel.

Many of the seventy-one gelatin photographic views of sites in Yosemite, taken after the construction of the Glacier Point Hotel in 1917, include tourists traveling in both Yosemite Transportation System vehicles and in private cars. The rest of the photographs (gelatin, albumen, cyanotype) are scenes taken mainly at the turn of the twentieth century in North Dakota and Montana but also in California, Iowa, Oregon and Washington. There are a number of images of Mandan Indians and their dwellings, schools, graves, transport, etc., taken at or near the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota; landscape views of Montana, including some of the Crook battlefield near Rosebud; scenic shots along the Columbia River and many unidentified rural settings; a photograph of the dedication of the Floyd obelisk near Sioux City, Iowa, on May 31, 1901, and shots of the sewing kit of expedition member George Shannon and a page of the expedition journal. Also, a studio portrait of Olin D. Wheeler and two pictures of him at his Northern Pacific Railway office desk. Box 68 contains photographs of traveling in Yosemite Valley National Park, California, circa 1925. Boxes 69, 70, and 88 contain Indian images and Western scenes, ca. 1880-1922.

Seven identifiable photographers in the collection are C. Emsley, Corliss Fairchild, Benjamin A. Gifford, Orlando Scott Goff, Caspar W. Hodgson, L.A. Huffman, and Lee Moorhouse.