The Verkamp Manuscript Collection consists of sixteen archives boxes of material and is divided into two sections. The first ten boxes contain detailed records of the family business, Verkamp's, which sold souvenirs, curios, and Native American crafts at the Grand Canyon's south rim for over one hundred years. These records include the standard business items such as invoices, ledgers, canceled checks, bank statements, and business correspondence. In addition there is much material related to the problems of being a concessionaire in a national park and having to continually navigate a federal bureaucracy which was oftentimes viewed as rigid and unresponsive. The final six boxes contain personal material relating to the Verkamp family during the years they spent living and working at the Grand Canyon. Of particular interest are documents showing the history of the Shrine of the Ages Chapel on the south rim, of which the Verkamp family were the prime movers. Also found here are family histories, birth certificates, personal journals, and family correspondence. The Verkamp Photograph Collection is subdivided into eight categories: (1) store, both interior and exterior views, (2) Shrine of the Ages Chapel, (3) family, (4) trips, (5) people (other than immediate family), (6) landscapes (Grand Canyon, general, floral), (7) events, and (8) other. The Moving Images Collection consists of home movies done in 8mm and 16mm reels, most of them focused on the family and family events. Most of them have been transferred to DVD. This collection contains a rather detailed look at a business enterprise which grew up with the American Southwest and with the national park ideal always in the background. The business survived only by being flexible, adapting, and by utilizing the efforts and hard work of a few key individuals. It is also the story of a prominent northern Arizona family which came west before there was much of anything out here and who carved a niche for themselves in a unique way. These records give an unduplicated view into commercial and personal life inside a very prominent national park as it evolved over the course of more than a century.
