A.T. (Alvin Thompson) Smith was an early Oregon pioneer who participated in the formation of the government of the Oregon Territory, and who also helped to found Pacific University. This collection contains transcripts of his diary, written from 1840 to 1853.

This anonymous handwritten volume contains several texts, including a diary of a sea voyage from Boston to San Francisco in 1852, a description of an 1863 trip on the Columbia River, and miscellaneous handwritten recipes, notes and clippings.

James Gerrish was an Oregon pioneer of 1844, and a Methodist circuit preacher who worked in Oregon and Washington in the 1850s-1860s. His diaries, dated 1854-1863, record his daily life travelling and preaching to communities on the frontier.

Laduska Jane Walker Sears lived from 1857-1903 in Polk County, Oregon. Her diary and recipe book contains a short entry for nearly every day from January-August 1876, when she was about 19 years old, as well as recipes.

Sidney Smith was among the first Americans to successfully make the overland journey to Oregon on what would become the Oregon Trail. He wrote this diary while travelling with the Peoria Party from Illinois to the Dalles in 1839.

Henry H. Spalding was a Presbyterian missionary who arrived in the Oregon Territory in 1836. This notebook, which he compiled during the 1850s-1860s, contains writings relating to his daily life as a missionary, farmer and Indian agent.