This collection consists of 2,842 photographs that document the history Utah State University from roughly 1890 to 1990. Nearly every major aspect of USU is covered by these images including student activities, athletics, building projects, departments, graduation, classroom scenes, the library, research, laboratories, extension and experiment station activities, and university staff and faculty. The images show the evolution of the University from the Agricultural College of Utah with nine faculty members and 139 students when classes first opened in the fall of 1890 to the modern, graduate, research institution. Photos are mounted onto 2,024 archival poster boards.

Entries followed by an (RO) designation are copies of the original. The originals are located in the Retired Originals Collection P0329 under the same item number. Many of these photographs are also found in other collections, such as the Agricultural College of Utah Cyanotypes Collection P0014. References to these collections will be listed after the entry by their collection number (ex. P0014) followed by their item number within the collection. Entries enclosed partially or wholly by quotation marks (" ") are taken directly from the reference work cited, in most cases this will be the Buzzer, the University yearbook.

Some photographs in this collection were replaced with modern copies and the originals removed to form the Retired originals photograph collection, 1860-1965 (P0329).