The Zion National Park Museum Collection contains over 300,000 documents, photographs, oral histories, slides, and maps related to topics ranging from the founding of the park to the Civilian Conservation Corps, as well as the current activities of the park. Also, approximately 22,500 objects are housed in the natural history collection at the Zion National Park Museum, including study skins of mammals and birds, insects, paleontological specimens, and preserved plants. Zion National Park's collection of cultural history artifacts contains over 30,000 objects that tell the stories of prehistoric settlements in the region, the early pioneer settlements and development of the canyon, the historic lodge and the Union Pacific Railroad, projects completed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the planning and implementation of the park's shuttle system, and the historic and contemporary works of art that have depicted Zion National Park.
In addition, the Zion National Park Museum manages the museum collections for Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument. These Include: historic collections, photographs, geological and paleontological artifacts, pressed plant specimens, art, and archaeological artifacts. There are over 250,000 artifacts in the Bryce Canyon National Park Collection, including over 6,000 archaeological and 12,000 paleontological artifacts. The Cedar Breaks National Monument Collection contains over 5,000 artifacts, including over 1,000 biology specimens.
To assist researchers, finding aids are posted to this website when collections are cataloged. Finding aids contain information on the contents and significance of an archival collection. The finding aid may include descriptive information, repository information, collection history, biographical or historical information on creators of the collection, and, in some cases, a container or folder list of everything in the collection.
Links of Interest
The museum collection is open by appointment only. Hours are 8:00 am-4:30 pm Monday-Friday, excluding federal holidays, and subject to staff availability. Please contact museum curator, Miriam Watson, at 435-772-0146 or by e-mail at miriam_watson@nps.gov.
Here are some finding aids with information on some of the collections here at the museum:
Archaeological Survey of the Southeast Corner