Digital Collections

Western History Subject Index

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SummaryWestern History Subject Index (formerly the General Index) card file contains more than seven million entries on four million cards.

The index began in the original Reference Department before the newly formed Western History Department took it on in 1935. Over the next sixty years, staff, volunteers, and Colorado Works Progress Administration employees steadily expanded it, indexing local newspapers and other publications by hand.

Because the work unfolded over such a long period—shaped by the language and assumptions of its time—some index cards contain outdated, inaccurate, or harmful terminology. While we recognize the index’s enduring value for research and historical understanding, Denver Public Library does not endorse the prejudiced language or social attitudes reflected in some of its descriptions.
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Loretto Heights college index card with article citations to newspapers