Phil Harms, c.1938-2005, was an avid collector with a life long interest in the history of automobile racing. Raised in the southern Indiana town of Columbus, Mr. Harms attended his first auto race, the Indianapolis 500, in 1952. His attraction to racing, and the Indy 500, can be seen in the newspaper clipping scrapbooks that are part of the collection, the earliest of which was started when Mr. Harms was 13 years old.

After attending Purdue University, Mr. Harms moved to southern Cal...

The Phil Harms Collection covers the period from 1896 to 2003, and is divided into eleven series: Indexes series, 1896-1989 (1 cubic ft.); Business and Financial series, c.1986-c.2009 (1.0 cubic ft.); Correspondence series, 1968-c.2000 (0.1 cubic ft.); Data and Statistics series, 1894-2004 (7.5 cubic ft.); Film series, 1911-1980 (1 cubic ft.); Newspaper Clipping Scrapbooks series, 1951-1980 (8 cubic ft.); Photographic Negatives series, 1896-1989