The Collection

The Grand Canyon Museum Collection preserves objects for research and exhibit purposes in order to document the area's unique cultural and natural history. Grand Canyon National Park staff has been preserving natural and cultural history items since the park was created in 1919.

The Museum Collection focuses on objects from the Grand Canyon region. There are over 800,000 objects in seven different collections: archeology, ethnology, biology, paleontology, geology, archive manuscripts, and history.

Photocopies of collection materials can be made at the cost of 15 cents per page. The price for oversize paper and large drawings vary depending upon paper size.

There is also a collection of over 20,000 black and white photographs. File copies may be loaned, emailed or purchased for research and publishing projects. Information about purchasing/borrowing photos is as follows:

• Some photos can be placed on a CD-Rom, at the cost of $ 10.00 per disk.
• Most file prints are printed on 8x10" black & white glossy RC paper.
• The cost of an 8x10 black and white photo print is $10.00. Checks should be made out to "National Park Service."
• In the event that an image is "out of stock," it could take up to 8 weeks to have a reprint made.
• In order to borrow photos from the collection, the person's Social Security Number - or business ID number - is required to initiate the loan or purchase.
• Unless identified as being in the public domain, or as being a National Park Service Photo, the Museum Collection does not hold Copyright to the images or artwork in the collection. It is the responsibility of the borrower to obtain copyright permission prior to publication or reproduction of an image in excess of "fair use."
  

If you know of any other objects which might be added to the collections, including reports, maps or drawings, photographs, postcards, souvenir items, or any other item related to Grand Canyon, please contact a Museum Collection staff member.