[MAXIMIZE RESOURCES]

Inquiries for research may be sent by email, telephone, fax, or USPS.  We require that all inquiries include the requester's name and contact information. Please note that our staff is small, so our research capacity is limited to quick searches of our available data. Names of local researchers available for hire are available from the museum.

Although we would love to honor all research requests, due to limited hours and staffing, advance appointments are required for all on-site research. Please understand that patience is required in fulfilling all research requests.

[RESOURCES TO GET YOU STARTED]

Telluride Historical Museum Photo Collection

Thanks to a grant from the Colorado Historical Society, the Telluride Historicl Museum has digitized the vast majority of its photo collection and photos are searchable online for research as well as for purchase. 

Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection

(CHNC) currently includes 86 newspapers published in Colorado from 1859 to 1928. Newspapers come from 46 cities and 34 counties throughout the state, which were published in English, German, Spanish, or Swedish. CHNC contains over 291,000 digitized pages from these newspapers. New material is added once a month. A searchable list of the newspapers included in CHNC is available. CHNC uses Olive Software's ActivePaper™ Platform, which was designed specifically for providing access to digitized newspapers.

Historic & Architectural Survey

An Historical Structures Map is available online at the Town of Telluride website. The 1986 Telluride Historic and Architectural Survey is not currently available through the town's website.

Lone Tree Cemetery Survey

The Lone Tree Cemetery Survey, completed under a Certified Local Government grant from the National Park Service and the Colorado Historical Society, maps surface markers within cemetery boundaries and photo documents resources.  The survey also includes a data base and written history. The survey was conducted to complement previous historical surveys, most notably the Telluride Historic and Architectural Survey for primary and secondary structures within the town limits. The relationship of the cemetery to the town and its history is explored through both research and documentation of individual graves as well as analysis of temporal patterns of death. The survey includes a database of all known deceased within the cemetery allowing descendants to locate individual graves.

Sanborn Maps

Sanborn fire insurance maps (1870 – 1970) are the most frequently consulted maps in both public and academic libraries. Sanborn maps are valuable historical tools for urban specialists, social historians, architects, geographers, genealogists, local historians, planners, environmentalists and anyone who wants to learn about the history, growth, and development of American cities, towns, and neighborhoods. They are large-scale plans containing data used to estimate potential fire risk for urban structures. An outline of each building, the dimensions, materials used in construction and location of windows and doors are shown. The maps also give street names, street and sidewalk widths, property boundaries, building use, and house and block numbers. Sanborn Maps can be accessed from the Wilkinson Public Library.  For further information, please contact the Wilkinson Public Library, Adult Reference Desk at 970-728-4519 or browse their E-Resources page.

Historical Foundation for Southeast New Mexico

The Historical Foundation for Southeast New Mexico supports the Historical Society, which runs the Historical Museum and the Museum Archives Center. Our archives contain over 300 cubic feet of documents and photos available to the public at no charge for area research.