Collection consists of 28 glass plate negatives of lumber mills, lumber shipping vessels and machinery, and street scenes in Oregon and northern California. The photographer and exact context for these photographs is unknown. The images primarily depict the C.A. Smith lumber mill located in Marshfield, Oregon today known as Coos Bay.
Also included are photographs of logging machinery, loading equipment, and various other mills and waterways, documenting areas such as the Coalbank Slough, Bunker Hill, the McKenna Mill, and Eastside, which is now considered a residential area in Coos Bay. In addition, the collection includes several photos of lumber steamships docked for loading at the C. A. Smith mill. Most notable are the Hazel Dollar, owned by the Dollar Steamship Line based in San Francisco, California; and the Nann Smith, which C. A. Smith named after his daughter.
Other photographs in the collection include the 1911 Centennial celebration in Astoria, Oregon, and photographs of assorted locations throughout northern California. These include the Plaza in Arcata, a cattle ferry at Eel River, the Little River Mill in Bullwinkle (also known as Crannel Mill, located in what is now Crannel), and the steamship Tenyo Maru and the United States Army transport ship Logan, both taken at the San Francisco harbor.
The collection also includes access prints of all 28 images, made by the Oregon Historical Society Research Library, which include annotations about the content of the photographs.