“I have only now been able to confer with my brother, B. B. Buffum, who graduated as a mechanical engineer in class of 1932, and as a result I enclose herewith the following photographs. ...”

— Excerpt of letter from Prof. Buffum’s daughter,
Eduma Buffum Boyne

• As the archivist gently turned the pages of the 1903 notebook, she recognized the numbers; they matched some of the glass plates negatives! Sharing this discovery with another archivist, their enthusiasm grew as they uncovered two letters dating from the 1970s in which B.C. Buffum’s daughter donated a few of her father’s photographs to the Archives. Using the letters and the notebook, the archivists found photographic prints in another archival collection that shared the numbering system of the glass plates. They shared a laugh about engaging in a plot reminiscent of the PBS series, “History Detectives.”
• The archivists then turned their attention to investigating the author of the notebook, B.C. Buffum (1868-1944). Who was this early photographer of CSU scenes and students? One archival collection led to another. Searching the first volumes of early student records, they established that B.C. Buffum was in fact a CSU alumnus. Details of his life found on the pages of these records came to light, such as his father’s name, his last school attended, and his  approximate age at entering the College. Picking up clues from that source, they turned to the State Board of Agriculture minutes, CSU’s governing board, to discover his graduation date in 1890.
• Soon the archivists wondered what happened to B.C. Buffum after he graduated from CSU. Again, the State Board of Agriculture minutes illuminated details of his life, indicating that Buffum served as an Assistant Professor of Horticulture at the University of Wyoming while earning a Masters of Science from CSU, awarded in 1893. Digging in yet another archival collection, one stemming from the first historian hired by the State Board of Agriculture to write a history of the College, Ruth J. Wattles, another piece of the puzzle emerged.