Rare suite of handsome photographs showing the staff and students of Pacific Methodist College as well as a stately view of the building. Included are group portraits of the faculty, the co-ed singing class, the college band, and the Ulatis Literary Society (named for the Ulatis Creek). The last group portrait does not bear captions like the others, but there is a period notation on the verso which reads, "Pacific Methodist College."

Founded in Vacaville, CA about 1861, the college was affiliated with the Southern Methodists, as the agricultural region northeast of San Francisco had a large number of settlers from Missouri and Kentucky. Stymied by the size and resources of Vacaville, the college moved to Santa Rosa in 1871 and closed around 1906.

There is a story, recounted in 1931 article in the Santa Rosa Republican, which claims “in the later days of Pacific Methodist Leland Stanford Jr came to Santa Rosa with the thought…to purchase the existing college as the nucleus for the one he planned but the trustees declined to meet one of the provisions — they would not allow the word “Methodist” to he stricken from the name. So (goes the story) Stanford University went to Palo Alto.”

Four of the photographs are credited to the photographer Miguel Noe Jr., who operated a photo studio in Livermore, CA, and later in Newman, CA. One is credited to "Walton" (possibly John W. Walton), and one is uncredited.