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Vontella Bulcholz Kimball was born in Farmington, Utah in 1906. She was the great-granddaughter of Heber C. Kimball, daughter of Corneilius Hess, and mother of Stanley Bucholz Kimball. Although there are a few references to her personal life, Vontella mentions she married a distant cousin by the name of Kimball., When Vontella was seventeen years of age she enrolled at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City and was employed in the cosmetics department of Auerbachs, a local department store. Newspaper clippings indicate that she was a handsome woman. She more or less created the job she later held being Helena Rubenstein in 1935. She lectured on charm and beauty at Brigham Young University in 1959. Her subject was titled "Beauty Through the Ages.", In the course of her work, she visited the Middle East six times, starting in 1935. Her admiration for the Arab world kept her in contact with the friends and customs she encountered on her many trips. Later, she gave lectures in the United States on traditional Arab attire and jewelry. She lectured for 20 years and then went to radio and television. Vontella Kimball died in 1976.

Collection was donated by Hortense Redd Erickson, a University of Utah alumnus and world traveller. It consists of 92 glass lantern slides from the 1920s. They were kept in the order according to the numbering of the slides. They are all of Europe, Egypt, and the Middle East.