Historical Notes

The diary of Jacob Bushman of Lehi, discovered inside a wall of a home being demolished, has been given to the Utah State Historical Society library. The diary covers the years 1871 and 1879-81. The library has also recently acquired Irrigation Age, 1897-1917, on seven rolls of microfilm.

Professor Gustive O. Larson of Brigham Young University, a Fellow of the Utah State Historical Society since 1964, has received a two-month research grant from the Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery at San Marino, California, to continue his study of Mormon immigration.

The program committee is inviting proposals for papers on "historical backgrounds for Far Western agriculture" for the University of California Davis Campus Symposium on Agriculture in the Development of the Far West to be held June 19-21, 1974. Participants from nonacademic public and private institutions are especially being sought. Recommendations may be sent to James H. Shideler, Agricultural History Center, University of California, Davis, California 95616.

Biographical material, newspaper clippings, and photographs relating to Reva Beck Bosone, who served in the House of Representatives from Utah, 1949-53, have been deposited in the American Fork Library's Dena S. Grant Historical Records Room.

The Archives Branch, Denver Federal Records Center, has recently added twenty-eight cubic feet of records of the Denver Branch Mint and Assay Office, 1863-1940. The mint's functions during early years were limited to assaying, smelting, and refining of precious metals from the Rocky Mountain region; no coins were struck until 1906.

The Ezra Taft Benson papers, 1952-61, are now available on thirty reels of microfilm at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas. Documents pertaining to his duties as secretary of agriculture include correspondence, agenda and notes for cabinet and staff meetings, and administrative records. These records treat soil and water conservation, drought, livestock prices, surplus commodities, school lunch programs, rural electrification, and departmental reorganization. Benson's correspondence with Republican party leaders, admin- istration officials, and the public relates to the politics of farm policy, campaign strategies, and speaking engagements. Some of the material reflects personal and family concerns and Benson's associations with the Boy Scouts and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

A quarterly feature, "Genealogy Notes," has been introduced in Prologue: The Journal of the National Archives beginning with the Winter 1973 issue. James D. Walker, genealogy and local history specialist with the National Archives, edits the section. Readers may write to Walker with questions about genealogical research in federal records.

Two new collections of personal papers have been deposited at Western Americana, Marriott Library, University of Utah. The library has received the first of the papers of former Congressman Sherman P. Lloyd and a variety of papers and miscellaneous books of A. R. Mortensen, chief historian of the National Park Service. Dr. Mortensen is a former director of the Utah State Historical Society and was professor of history at the university prior to his Washington appointment. Additional materials have been contributed to the Maud May Babcock and J. Bracken Lee collections. Professor Babcock promoted dramatics at the university, and Mr. Lee is both a former governor of Utah and a former mayor of Salt Lake City. Western Americana has also acquired an 1858 letter of Brigham Young to George Q. Cannon announcing the latter's apostleship and several issues of the Nauvoo Neighbor, including the July 3, 1844, issue announcing the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum Smith.