The Farmington Historical Museum’s library and archive hold family histories, letters, diaries, maps, school records, photographs, and newspapers that glimpse daily life in Farmington and Davis County and help turn private memory into public history. Judith Wellman notes that local history depends on unique primary sources in communities and that preserving local records “deserves immediate and consistent action” (Wellman 1996, 55). When the museum collects and cares for family papers, local writings, and classroom projects, it is doing this work.

Photo by Peter Atkisson

Photo by Kristen Atkisson

The archive also preserves the work of local historians Margaret Steed Hess, George Quincy Knowlton, and Randy Hendrickson Rudolph, along with two community history projects from a sixth grade class in 1950 and a fourth grade class in 1981–82. Whitefield Bell praises such “amateur historians,” arguing that history is “an undertaking in which… all the citizens are deeply interested” and that nonprofessionals often know local people and places best (Bell 1996, 29). The examples featured on this site are only a small sample of the many works and collections available to view at the museum.

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Mary Lynn Stevens warns that local museums can rely on “wistful recollections of bygone days” instead of research, creating a “false pleasantness” that hides hardship (Stevens 1981, 11). Grounding exhibits and programs in letters, diaries, maps, newspapers, and local studies helps Farmington’s museum ask deeper questions about work, migration, gender, and belief. This goes beyond nostalgia. The museum also houses most of The Davis County Clipper archive, a weekly paper founded in 1892 that documented local history for more than a century before ending publication in 2020. The archive is available for research by appointment and supports ongoing public history and community research.

Photo by Kristen Atkisson

Photo by Kristen Atkisson