DENVER — The fifth floor of the Denver Public Library's Central Library is a beautiful, quiet space many visit simply to get some work done.
Colorado sunshine falls on the most popular and well-maintained books of the library’s Western history collection which lines the shelves in the Gates Reading Room on the library’s fifth floor.
But just across the hall, and tucked away behind a locked door is the real treasure: The climate-controlled vault room, which houses one of three floors dedicated to the library's Western history collection.
The Denver Public Library (DPL) began collecting maps, books and other artifacts of the American West in 1929.
“The history of the West was being written, but the people who were collecting it were private collectors and libraries in the east,” said Rachel Vagts, manager of special collections and digital archives.
By 1935, DPL started dedicating staff to the collection and made the Western History Department official.
“Sometimes in your head it’s cowboys and Indians. It’s miners. It’s railroads, but we are telling the history of everyone who’s been in this place,” Vagts said.
In addition to plenty of old maps, countless photos and a plethora of books, the collection has some surprises. Concert posters from the 1960s, a photo book of Denver’s Colfax Avenue and even giant old book of choir music that looks like something Gandalf would pour over in Middle Earth.
Most of the collection was donated, but the library purchases some items.
Collections this large don’t tend to live in public libraries.
“This is an atypical thing," Vagts said. "Absolutely. It is much more common for a collection like this to be at a large research library."
Collections this large are typically only open to the pubic during regular business hours Monday through Friday. And they hold a certain stigma that may turn off curious members of the public because it will often it will take days to get the materials you’re looking for.
With a DPL card, however, the Western history collection is open to the public every day and most evenings.
The staff of nearly twenty people can typically find your item in the collection in minutes, and they have a robust digital collection. Vagts wouldn’t have it any other way.
“What I love is that this is a place where everyone is welcome," she said. "There aren’t a lot of barriers put up, you just need a library card.”
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