Master Index

Master Index is the twenty-seventh, and final book, in the Time-Life series "The Old West". It was compiled by researcher Gail Partoyan.

Releases
1st Printing - © 1980 2nd Printing - © 1980, Revised 1982 3rd Printing -

Abbreviations Used
The following abbreviations are used throughout the Master Index to call out individual books:
 * AL The Alaskans
 * CA The Canadians
 * CB The Cowboys
 * CH The Chroniclers
 * EM The End and the Myth
 * EX The Expressmen
 * FN The Forty-niners
 * FR The Frontiersmen
 * GC The Great Chiefs
 * GF The Gunfighters
 * GM The Gamblers
 * IN The Indians


 * LG The Loggers
 * MW The Mexican War
 * PI The Pioneers
 * RM The Rivermen
 * RN The Ranchers
 * RR The Railroaders
 * SC The Scouts
 * SW The Spanish West
 * TB The Trailblazers
 * TM The Townsmen
 * TX The Texans
 * WO The Women

Future Indexes
While Time-Life has been creating indexes for their guides for years, the Master Index included in the "The Old West" series helped set the pace. While "Master Index" was a common title, it is unknown why the index wasn't given the name "The Master Index", keeping the definitive article "The" which has preceded the title of every book in this series. It's also unknown why the index wasn't given the same styling as the preceding 26 volumes. When Time-Life released their next bestselling series, "The Civil War", it created a Master Index which surpassed the index for the "The Old West" series in every way. Matching the styling of the preceding 27 titles, the Master Index for "The Civil War" possessed a similar embossed faux leather covering and metallic blue lettering on the spine. As this index had to be much thicker, photographs, illustrations, maps, timelines and other useful trivia filled the pages not taken up by the index itself.