Mailboxes, quilts, murals, tree bark graffiti, fences, gravestones, and festivals are among the many examples of folklife and material culture visually recorded by folklorists Austin and Alta Fife and presented in this collection. Alta Fife wrote: "Since our first collecting ventures in the realm of the folklore of the Intermountain West, we have carried a camera and taken pictures of things, people, events. However, it was not until we came to Utah to live in 1960 that we began to give folk life and material culture the interest it justifies, and to use the camera as the principal means for documenting our observation." While most of the slides in this collection were taken by Austin E. Fife, others, especially Wayland D. Hand, contributed slides as well. This collection is part of the Austin and Alta Fieldwork Collection, begun in 1966 with the Fife's initial extensive fieldwork collections and added to up until 1982.