The first few pages of Idaho’s original state Constitution are tattered.
Red ink has bled through — a consequence of state archivists deciding to laminate the first few pages in the ‘70s.
But even though the state’s foundational legal document is showing wear, it’s available for the public to see — like thousands of other state government records and donated records that the Idaho State Historical Society houses.
As the state shifts away from aging storage facilities elsewhere in Boise, the State Historical Society is building an expanded 50,000-square-foot storage facility at its headquarters in Boise near the Old Idaho Penitentiary, a prison that operated during Idaho’s territorial days and is now open to the public for tours. That new facility, set to be finished in December, will house physical artifacts and tens of thousands of feet of physical records that the agency houses for other state agencies.
“Everything we do here is to provide access and to preserve,” said Angie Davis, an outreach and collections archivist with the State Historical Society. But those two values, she added, “often are at odds with each other, because the more access you have to a thing, the more at risk potentially a thing can be.”
The state’s Constitution gets checked out so often that staff with the agency made several other copies of it — including a digitally scanned version of the state Constitution, where those red smudges show up. But “if somebody insists on seeing the original Constitution, we will pull it and just take very special care of it,” Davis said.
The Idaho State Historical Society, a state government agency that runs the state’s museum, has for decades cared for many records in the government’s possession and donated by private individuals. First founded as a nonprofit in 1881, the organization became a state agency in 1907.
Since Idaho nuclear downwinders became eligible for federal compensation for sickness after nuclear bomb tests, hundreds have turned to the Idaho State Historical Society and other libraries to find records that prove they or their families lived in Idaho decades ago. But some Idahoans might not know about the wealth of records — like decades of old newspapers, including from abandoned mining towns; city records; and records from Idaho’s territorial days — that the state agency stores and makes publicly accessible.
Idaho State Historical Society Executive Director Janet Gallimore said history organizations are among the most trusted in the U.S. because they house original materials. So, she said her staff are cautious to stick to the facts.
“We’re very careful that when we do interpretation, that we are speaking from the evidence that we have, and we don’t take a stand one way or the other about the facts,” she said. “It’s just — these are the facts, and they provide context for where we are today. But we don’t try to influence people’s perspective. We try to provide context for where we are.”
What records and artifacts does the Idaho State Historical Society have?
At the entry to the Idaho State Archives’ office, there’s an exhibit dedicated to Lincoln — built largely with materials donated by former Idaho Attorney General David Leroy.
In the 1960s, archivists with the Idaho State Historical Society started preserving copies of newspapers from across the state. Now, the historical society says it has over 40,000 rolls of microfilm — essentially scanned physical archives of newspapers — dating back to 1863. Newspaper articles between 1836 and 1925 can be accessed digitally through the Idaho Digital Newspaper Project.
The historical society also supplies public libraries and universities with microfilm.
And the agency has reams of early documents of Idaho’s history, like a copy of the congressional bill that established a territorial government for Idaho, which is riddled with notes along the margins; and a copy of former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s order appointing Idaho’s first territorial governor, William H. Wallace. The agency was also donated archival plans for the construction of the Idaho State Capitol building by the firm Hummel Architects.
But if the Idaho State Historical Society doesn’t have what you’re looking for, staff often try to help you track it down elsewhere, Davis said.
“We try to find a way to help people. And often I think people don’t know how essential we are until they need something,” she said. “They find themselves in a situation where they need to prove that their driveway existed before 1960. Who could anticipate that sort of situation? And the RECA,” — the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act — “is a very big example of that. How do you prove your residency 70 years ago?”
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How does the state agency safely store so many records?
To access records from the Idaho State Historical Society, viewers must request them and access them only in the designated viewing room, called the Lincoln Reading Room. People should make appointments online, or submit a research request.
The State Historical Society’s vaults, where records are stored, are climate controlled — with set temperatures and humidity levels. Unlike many other buildings, the pipes that line the vault’s ceilings and feed into the fire suppression sprinklers are empty. That’s because if there’s a leak, it might take time to find, and it would damage records, said Owen Prout, a reference archivist for the Idaho State Historical Society.
Deep inside the State Historical Society’s vault, the original state Constitution sits in a filing cabinet that requires a series of keys to open. That separate vault — designated as the high-value vault — stores some of the state’s territorial documents and highly flammable photos on nitrite film.
After the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act expanded to cover Idaho nuclear downwinders, city directories by Polk’s are one of the most commonly accessed records at the Idaho State Historical Society. (Photo by Kyle Pfannenstiel/Idaho Capital Sun) But the fire suppression system in the room doesn’t use water. Instead, in the event of a fire, a tank releases argon gas, which is heavier than the air, pushing oxygen up and out of the room through a vent.
To safely preserve records, the modern understanding is that a little goes a long way.
In 2020, the agency sent the Constitution to Utah to be restored after it underwent damage from lamination. That effort — which involved Gov. Brad Little and officials bringing the document to Utah in the state plane — was spotlighted in a documentary by Idaho Public Television.
Idaho Capital Sun is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Idaho Capital Sun maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Christina Lords for questions: info@idahocapitalsun.com.