A descriptive listing of all the collections is available. Major collections are listed below. Three of the photograph collections are searchable in a single database.

Archives. This University history collection includes a complete set of the college catalog, the yearbook, the student newspaper (Lumberjack) and all theses completed at Humboldt State. In addition to these and other materials found in the Library catalog, there is a large pamphlet collection and a substantial collection of photographs. The webpage provides history of the name, a chronology of the University, and a faculty database.

Charles R. Barnum History Awards. Since 1956 award winning essays by Humboldt State students cover various aspects of local history.

Don H. Clausen Congressional Papers. From 1963 to 1982 Don Clausen served as our district's representative to the U.S. House of Representatives. Highlights of the collection are materials relating to the creation of Redwood National Park (in 1968) and its expansion (in 1978), securing the funding for the Lake Sonoma/Warm Springs Dam project, the King Range National Recreation Area, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, establishing the 200 mile off-shore fishing limit, the forestry and wine industries, the rivers especially Eel, Russian, and Klamath, Native American concerns, and aviation especially aviation education.

Ericson Photograph Collection. This collection documents all aspects of life in northwestern California from the late 1880s to 1920. 497 images are online.

Susie Baker Fountain Papers. Our premier local history collection was constructed by Susie Baker Fountain, Humboldt's first graduate in 1915. As a local historian and professional columnist for the Blue Lake Advocate, she developed an extraordinary clipping file and collection of materials on northwestern California activities and history covering the period from settlement through 1960.

Genzoli Collection. Access to this collection is by appointment only. It represents the materials, especially photographs, gathered by Andrew Genzoli, a newspaper columnist, historian, and teacher who died in 1984.

Pacific Salmon Archive. The HSU Library is a depository for material on three of the fourteen species being documented under the Endangered Specieas Act (ESA): West Coast Steelhead, Coho, and Chinook.

Redwood District Council of Lumber and Sawmill Workers Collection. The RDC existed from 1940 to 1986 as an umbrella organization of industrially organized plywood, sawmill, and logging local unions in Del Norte, Humboldt, and at one time, Lake, Mendocino, and Trinity Counties. The very extensive finding aid is online.

Roberts Photograph Collection. Ruth Roberts (1885-1967) worked with the Del Norte County Historical Society to develop a collection related to the Yurok and Tolowa Indians. Her photographs were taken primarily in the period 1915-1933 when she lived on the lower Klamath River. 98 of the 536 images are online.

Schoenrock Photograph Collection. The Schoenrock Collection consists of 104 photographs taken in and around Requa, California, during its heyday as a bustling cannery town, 1890-1925. They were taken by a variety of photographers who, following the fashion of the time, printed and sold some of their work on postcards.

Swanlund-Baker Photograph Collection. Highlights of this collection are the photographs by Ray Jerome Baker from 1906-1910, especially of tan bark logging in southern and Humboldt County Cottage Grove nurseries.

Western Air Photo Collection. This collection consists of 58 aerial photographs from the early 1950s, primarily of farm houses in the Arcata-Trinidad area.