Archives & Collections Online Database 

The Israelite House of David Archives & Collections has utilized the online collection cataloging system CatalogIt since 2023.  Cataloging our collections will take years, if not decades.  Once live, the public will be able to search by person, date, place, or tag to explore the items we steward. 

Baseball Collection

As one of the Archives & Collections most requested collection, the organization and digitization of the HoD Baseball Collection is a top priority. 

There are currently 14 boxes of archival material associated with the House of David Baseball Collection including photographs, incoming correspondence, business accounts, and more. 

Negative Collection 

The Archives & Collections holds a large collection of negatives, including glass plate negatives, lantern slides, and film. This collection is a mixture of rare photos, high-quality images of mass-produced House of David postcard images, and member candids. The collection is significant as it has many images that contain Henry "Harry" Kirkham's (1883-1963) original handwritten notes. Kirkham was a HoD member and a professional photographer, who jotted notes in the margins of many of his negatives, identifying the people and subjects contain in them and the dates the photographs were taken or processed. This collection is quite large; there are 21 glass plate negative boxes alone, holding about 80-90 individual negatives each. 

Photograph Collection

The House of David is unique in how heavily photographed its members, grounds, and businesses were. Owing in part to the efforts of professional photographers Lewis Burgdoffer, William Connon, Gordon Holliday, and, especially, Henry "Harry" Kirkham, the colony has a bounty of images. 

The organization and digitization of photographs is an ongoing priority for the collection staff, bolstered by the hard work of volunteers!