Utah State Historical Society - Sixty Years of Organized History

Utah Historical Quarterly

Vol. 25, 1957, Nos. 1-4

UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY SIXTY YEARS OF ORGANIZED HISTORY

THE YEAR 1957 may be a "Year of Decision" for the Utah State Historical Society, and it also may be called a "Year of Arrival." Sixty years might not be a long time in the perspective of ancient history, but three score becomes a rather respectable age as institutions go in the Far West.

The Utah State Historical Society was born sixty years ago, on July 22, 1897, not in poverty but truly in riches, at least the riches of hope and excitement in connection with Utah's great semi-centennial celebration of that year. Furthermore, the parentage of the Society was the most illustrious that Utah had to offer. A list of those who presided at its birth reads like a list of "Who's Who" in the Utah of its day. Those people who signed the "call" to organize a State Historical Society and the seventy-four "charter members" came from all sections of the state and from all walks of life. The most prominent leaders of church, state, and business were numbered among the founders. However, the enthusiasm created at the time of the Jubilee Celebration of the advent of the pioneers was dissipated, for the auspicious hopes surrounding the birth of the Society were not realized for many years. The young organization was more or less forgotten in the trials and tribulations of getting the new state government on its feet. But, over the years there were several stages of progress.

During the first twenty years meetings were held more or less annually, at which time elections for officers were held and addresses were delivered on historical subjects. The men who presided over the Society as presidents during those first two decades were: Franklin D. Richards, John T. Caine, Orson F. Whitney, Joseph T. Kingsbury, James E. Talmage, Spencer Clawson, and Andrew Jenson. A most important step in the development of the Society was made in 1917 when the twelfth legislature recognized the organization as a state institution. For another twenty years the Society continued its work, mainly in the form of Board meetings and occasional public meetings. Then in 1928, under the leadership of men like J. Cecil Alter, Albert F. Philips, Joel E. Ricks, Frank K. Seegmiller, William J. Snow, and Hugh Ryan, a modest appropriation was obtained from the state legislature, which permitted the Society to begin the publishing of the Utah Historical Quarterly. Under the editorship of Mr. Alter the Quarterly continued to appear until 1933, when publication was suspended due to lack of funds. During the middle 'thirties the activities of the Society were kept alive by the efforts of the Board of Control and a part-time secretary, Mrs. Flora Bean Home, who did much to bring order to the affairs and belongings of the organization.

In 1937 the state legislature granted an appropriation of $4,500.00 for the biennium. A full-time secretary was employed and publication of the Quarterly was resumed. Since that day twenty years ago, the Society has never ceased to grow, slowly at first but with rapid strides in recent years. In those years and under the leadership of presidents Herbert S. Auerbach, Levi Edgar Young, and Joel E. Ricks, aided by secretary Marguerite L. Sinclair and editor J. Cecil Alter, the Quarterly continued to appear, so that today in its twenty-fifth volume it has become one of the most widely respected historical reviews published in the West. In those same years the Society made a significant step "upward" when the offices were moved from a dim room in the basement of the State Capitol to a small but pleasant office adjacent to the State Law Library. Here, in addition to continuation of the publication program, hundreds of books and manuscripts were added to the library and collections of the Society.

During the period of World War II, the Society gathered and preserved the records of thousands of Utah men and women who served in the armed forces.

In 1950 another significant step was taken when the Board of Control appointed A. R. Mortensen, a professional historian, as director of the Society and editor of its publications. During the past seven years the Quarterly has appeared regularly, the budget has grown through the generosity of the state legislature, professional people have been added to the staff, and the library has grown tremendously through purchase and gift. The Society was made responsible for all noncurrent public records when the legislature in 1951 created a division of State Archives. Finally, on January 7, 1957, the Society moved to its first permanent, dignified, and spacious home at 603 East South Temple. From this brief recital it would seem that the Society in its sixtieth year has indeed arrived at a stage of maturity, well equipped for its work of the future. In the sections that follow are brief sketches of the personnel and the activities and functions of the Society.

PRESIDENTS OF THE UTAH STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

The Society is proud of the distinguished men who have presided over its destiny in the past sixty years. Without exception they have been men of distinction and position and leaders in the Utah community. All of them have had an abiding interest in history, and many may be classified as professional historians. However, also among the group have been outstanding leaders of every facet of society, including church, state, education, and business.

BOARD OF TRUSTEESJUANITA BROOKS

Juanita Leone (Leavitt) Brooks was born at Bunkerville, Nevada, January 15, 1898, the daughter of Dudley Henry and Mary Hafen Leavitt. On both sides of the family she is of pioneer Mormon descent. Reared and educated at Bunkerville, one of the Mormon settlements in the Nevada portion of the Virgin River Valley, she married Leonard Ernest Pulsipher only to be widowed at twenty with a son in arms. Subsequently she worked her way through Brigham Young University, winning the B.A. degree in 1925, and in 1929 was awarded her M.A. at Columbia University in New York. Returning to Utah, she taught at Dixie Junior College for a time, then abandoned teaching to marry William Brooks, who was sheriff of Washington County, and later, from 1934 until his retirement in 1951, was postmaster at St. George. He was a widower with four sons of his own, and subsequently to them were born a daughter and three more sons. This large and happy family has consistently distinguished itself in the scholastic and community life of St. George.

When work relief projects were inaugurated in the 1930's, Mrs. Brooks was drafted for service as an area supervisor, first for the Emegency Relief Administration, later for the Historical Records Survey. While so engaged, she began the collection and transcription of pioneer manuscripts which later became a primary activity of the Historical Records Survey and Writers' Project of the Work Projects Administration, and has since been actively carried on by the Utah State Historical Society. Copies of these manuscripts, deposited in Washington, D. C., and in California as well as in Utah, have done much to enrich and vitalize the work of scholars whose widely varying interests have touched upon the Mormon- Utah scene. Still later, when the Rockefeller Foundation financed a program for collecting the materials of regional history in the United States, the Henry E. Huntington Library, given responsibility for the Southwest, again drafted Mrs. Brooks for advisory and field service, and the imposing collection of photocopies of Utah-Mormon manuscripts now preserved at the Huntington Library is one of many monuments to her labors.

Meanwhile she won distinction as a writer and interpreter of Mormon history, culture, and folkways. Among the best of her many articles in magazines are "A Close-up of Polygamy" and "The Water's In," published in Harper's in February, 1933, and May, 1941; and "Indian Relations on the Mormon Frontier," in this Quarterly, January-April, 1944. Others have appeared in such periodicals as Pacific Spectator, Arizona Highways, Western Humanities Review, and Improvement Era. In 1942 she published at St. George a biography of her grandfather, Dudley Leavitt, Pioneer to Southern Utah; in 1950 from the Stanford University Press came her rigorously honest study of a long-tabooed topic, The Mountain Meadows Massacre; and in 1955 the Huntington Library published in two volumes the monumental A Mormon Chronicle: The Diaries of John D. Lee, 1848-1876, which she edited in collaboration with Robert Glass Cleland. Currently she is writing a biography to develop more fully Lee's remarkable, complex character, and his place in Mormon history.

As family responsibilities permitted, Mrs. Brooks became active in St. George, Washington County, and state affairs. She again taught English and speech at Dixie College, served in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and on many local boards and committees; she has spoken in behalf of a Utah point of view at many public proceedings and on many occasions in Utah and out; and since 1949 has been a valued member of the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society.

Courageous and independent, active of mind and body, publicspirited and well-informed, Mrs. Brooks is one of the most notable of living Utah personalities, outstanding both as exponent and interpreter of the people from whom she has sprung.

Louis BUCHMAN

Dale L. Morgan

Louis Buchman, for many years one of Utah's most distinguished business executives, was born in Latvia, but since 1893 has been a resident and citizen of the United States.

He is a graduate of the Michigan College of Mines in the class of 1907, having been awarded the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Engineer of Mines. For several years after graduation, he served as engineer and surveyor at various mines in Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Oregon.

In 1914, he became associated with the Utah Copper Company with which corporation and its successor, the Kennecott Copper, he served over a period of thirty-nine years as assistant mine superintendent, mine superintendent, general superintendent of mines, and general superintendent of all operations.

In 1949, he was named general manager of Kennecott's Western Division and in 1952 was elected vice-president and director of that corporation, continuing to supervise all western mining divisions until his retirement in 1953.

In 1956 Mr. Buchman was the recipient of the coveted William Lawrence Saunders Gold Medal presented by the American Institute of Mines and Metallurgical Engineers for outstanding achievement as a mining engineer. In attaining this distinction he ranks with a very select group of prominent Americans, among them Herbert Hoover, John Hays Hammond, and Daniel C. Jackling.

Louis Buchman has been a resident of Utah since 1914; he has played an important part in business, banking, and civic matters, and has served as a member of the Utah State Historical Society governing board since 1955.

Mr. and Mrs. Buchman reside at 125 South Thirteen East in

LELAND HARGRAVE CREER

Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr.

The Utah State Historical Society has as its president for the current year one of Utah's most distinguished historians, Dr. Leland Hargrave Creer, professor and head of the department of history at the University of Utah.

Dr. Creer was born at Spanish Fork, Utah, April 19, 1895, the son of Thomas O. and Mary Jones Creer (both are now deceased). The pride he has always felt in his pioneer heritage goes a long way to explain Dr. Creer's interest in Utah history: his Jones' grandparents were among the earliest settlers, and his Grandmother Creer pushed a handcart from Winter Quarters to Salt Lake City— 1,100 miles—in 1856.

By working for his father on railway construction in Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho each summer, Dr. Creer put himself through the University of Utah, graduating in 1916. He later took an M.A. there in 1920, but by that time he had already begun his long teaching and administrative career. Following four years as an instructor in history in Spanish Fork and Granite high schools, he accepted the presidency of Gila College, Thatcher, Arizona, in 1920. He left Gila in 1924 to resume his studies, this time at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1926. His doctoral dissertation, Utah and the Nation, was published by the University of Washington in 1929.

Dr. Creer served on the faculty of the University of Washington from 1926 through 1935, except for a year (1931) as visiting professor at the University of Hawaii. In 1935 the administrator's life beckoned him once more, and he became president of Weber College at Ogden, Utah. Since 1937 he has been professor of history at the University of Utah, and 1957 marks his fifteenth year as head of the department. These years of service to the West's youth have produced also a long and distinguished bibliography.

Besides Utah and the Nation, Dr. Creer has written one of the definitive studies of Utah before the coming of the Mormons, The Founding of an Empire (Salt Lake City, 1947). He also edited and completed Andrew Love Neff's History of Utah (Salt Lake City, 1940). Articles on this region from his pen include "Mormonism" (in Vol. XI of the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 1931) and "George H. Dern" (in Vol. XXII of the Dictionary of American Biography, 1957). In addition, he has had a continuing interest in the broader historical themes, as evidenced by his work, The New Nationalism (Seattle, 1927), and the lecture he delivered in 1944 for the Reynolds Memorial Lecture at the University of Utah, "Nationalism and World Peace."

For eight years (1944-1952) he was a member of the Athletic Council, University of Utah, five of which he served as chairman. For many years, he was also a member of the important Credits and Admissions Committee of the university and its chairman for three years and at present he is chairman of the University Publications Committee. Dr. Creer has taken time from his other responsibilities to play a very active role in organizational work as well. Besides membership in Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Alpha Theta, national scholarship fraternities, he has served as secretary of the Northwest Association of Secondary Schools and Colleges. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Historical Society since 1949; from 1952 until 1957 he filled the position of vice-president, and in March last was elected its president. In addition he has worked in the Sons of the Utah Pioneers.

Now he is working on another book, Greater Western America (in collaboration with Dr. C. Gregory Crampton) and conducting field trips and giving lectures all over the state. He is proudest, however, of the first granddaughter, Stacy Ann Christensen, born April 20 of this year. He and his wife, Verona Morrison Creer, are the parents of three children, Leland Morrison Creer, Bonnie Amanda Creer, and Mrs. Gerald W. Christensen (Mary Lee).

Philip C. Sturges

GEORGE F. EGAN

Mr. George F. Egan was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Thomas A. Egan and Mary Elizabeth Reid Egan, in 1899. In 1918, shortly after completing his education in the public schools of Chicago, he enlisted in the U. S. Army and trained as a Signal Corps telegrapher at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. In August of 1918 he was sent to France and saw service in France and Belgium with the 37th Division (Ohio National Guard). After the armistice was signed, he remained in Europe until August of 1919 as a clerk in the Graves Registration Service, which service was responsible for the location and registration of all the graves of United States service personnel buried in Europe. He returned to his home in Chicago in 1920.

In the fall of 1920 it was necessary for him to seek a higher and dryer climate, due to a health condition, and as a result he moved to western Colorado. While residing in Grand Junction, Colorado, he engaged in accounting work and for a period of two years was a deputy in the office of the Mesa County Treasurer.

In 1925 Mr. Egan came to Salt Lake City for the purpose of engaging in public accounting and shortly thereafter found employment with the firm of Scholefield, Wells & Baxter, Certified Public Accountants. Through university extension courses, he prepared for the certified public accountant's examination and acquired his certificate in 1938.

In 1941 Mr. Egan became comptroller of the Kearns Corporation and the Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Company, and in 1952 upon the formation of the Newspaper Agency Corporation, he became associated with that corporation as its comptroller.

On August 12, 1925, Mr. Egan married Miss Emma B. Sullivan, a teacher in the Grand Junction (Colorado) High School.

Mr. Egan is a member of the Catholic church, Our Lady of Lourdes Parish. He is a member of the board of directors and treasurer of Catholic Charities of Salt Lake City. He is also a member of the American Institute of Accountants; the Utah Association of Certified Public Accountants; and is a member of the board of directors of the Institute of Newspaper Controllers and Finance Officers, an international organization of newspaper accountants. For a period of years Mr. Egan served on the board of directors of the Childrens Service Society of Utah, and for four years was president of that organization. Since 1955 he has served on the Board of Trustees of the Historical Society.

Mr. and Mrs. Egan reside at 1562 South Fifteenth East Street, Salt Lake City. His principal recreation is reading, with a particular interest in history.

CHARLES R. MABEY

Charles R. Mabey, former governor of Utah, was born in Bountiful, Utah, October 4, 1877, to Joseph Thomas and Sarah Tolman Mabey, one of a family of twelve sons and daughters. He spent his early years in Bountiful in the usual manner of a boy in a rural Utah community, working at farm chores and attending the grade schools in the area. He was a student at the University of Utah from 1893 to 1896, after which he attended the University of Chicago. The activities of his long and varied career have ranged from school teacher, banker, business executive, financial director, and legislator, to chief executive of his native state. He has held every rank in the army from private to major, and he has attained honors as a scholar, community servant, churchman, author, and poet.

Charles R. Mabey was married to Afton Rampton on December 20, 1905. To them four sons were born—Rendell N, Charles P., Robert B., and Edward M. Mabey. Mrs. Mabey, a woman of considerable charm and talent in her own right, was an ideal helpmate to her husband. She died in January of 1946.

Upon completion of his formal education Mr. Mabey taught school in the grade schools of Bountiful for several years, then taught the higher grades for a time in Cedar City. After a few years of school teaching, he contemplated going back to school for the study of law, but at an opportune time a bank position beckoned to him, and for economic reasons he and his wife decided upon the latter. Thus was launched his successful career in the field of finance which culminated in his becoming a bank president. Mr. Mabey is a veteran of the Spanish-American War, serving as a sergeant in the Utah artillery in the Philippines. In World War I, he served in the 145th Field Artillery, attaining the rank of major. In 1900 he served the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by fulfilling a mission to Germany. His personal business activities were interrupted in 1921 when he was chosen by the people of his state to serve as their governor (1921-25). Over the ensuing years, Mr. Mabey has contributed a great deal of his time and talents in the service of his community and state.

He is a member of the American Legion, Sons of the American Revolution, and the Navy League of the United States. He was chairman of the Union Building drive (for the first Union Building on the U. of U. campus), and a member of the Stadium Trust Corporation, which helped finance and erect the stadium for that university. He is also a former director of the University Development Fund and former president of the University Emeritus Club.

Mr. Mabey started to express himself in writing as early as 1900, at which time, as a result of his Spanish-American War activities, he wrote A History of the Utah Batteries. In 1903 his first poem, "That Old Thresher," appeared in the Davis County Clipper. He has continued to produce poetry and writings of considerable stature, though he is probably best known for his "The Pony Express," an epic poem of the Pony Riders and their arduous 1,996 mile ride from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento. Other poems include "Song of the Saints," "Land of the Saints," and "Sunset on Great Salt Lake"—all expressions in rhythm of all that he knew of his own people, the Mormons. My Father's House, a history of Bountiful, also came from his pen. His "Wake Up America" was written shortly after Pearl Harbor and was used by Captain Eddie Rickenbacker on one of his radio addresses. It has since been used in various places and even written into the Congressional Record. In addition to his writing, Governor Mabey is an orator, for he has written and delivered hundreds of speeches. But his first love is poetry, for he feels that "it is an expression of the divine; some people shut it out, but there are others who let it flow through."

In this long and richly varied career of his, the honors awarded to Charles R. Mabey have been notable. In 1947 he was chosen president of a cultural association known as "Poets of the Pacific," and in June of 1953 his Alma Mater, the University of Utah, awarded him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

Thus we have Charles R. Mabey, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society since 1947, a man of poetic genius as well as the qualities of a chief executive. He continues to write and contribute to the world about him from his home in its lovely garden setting at 6405 Orchard Drive, Bountiful, Utah.

D. S.

WILLIAM F. MCCREA

William F. McCrea, youngest member of the Utah State Historical Society governing board, was born in Salt Lake City, December 27, 1909, the son of William M. McCrea and Beatrice O'Connor McCrea. He was appointed to the Board in April of 1955.

He was educated in the Salt Lake City schools and was graduated from the University of Utah in 1932 with a B.A. degree. In 1928, Mr. McCrea won a national oratorical contest as a representative of East High School and was valedictorian of his graduating class.

At the University of Utah he was president of both Freshman and Senior classes and active in campus publications. He majored in history and political science under Dr. George Emory Fellows and secured a minor in speech. He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

On graduation from the university, he worked as a reporter for the old Salt Lake Telegram, covering the Federal Building as his first assignment. He also worked on the copy desk and served several years as a sports writer. He resigned his newspaper work in 1938 when he was employed as publicity director for the University of Utah Extension Division.

In 1942 he became public relations director for the university and director of the U. of U. News Bureau. He served in that capacity until 1945 when he joined the staff of Amalgamated Sugar Company in Ogden as director of public relations, the position which he still holds.

Mr. McCrea's father, the late Judge William M. McCrea, had one of the best libraries in the state on early Utah and Western history. At his death in January of 1952, a large part of the library was given to the University of Utah.

Mr. McCrea currently is serving as president of the Weber Club and is a member of the national board of directors of the Public Relations Society of America. He is a past director of the Ogden Kiwanis and Ogden Golf and Country clubs and is active in Boy Scout activities at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Ogden.

The McCreas, including Mr. and Mrs. McCrea and their two children, Judy, 16, and Bruce, 12, reside at 1537 Twenty-sixth Street, Ogden, Utah. Another daughter, Patricia, 21, is a senior at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The oldest son, William Barclay McCrea, died in October of 1953 of leukemia while in his second year at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

NICHOLAS G. MORGAN, SR.

Nicholas Groesbeck Morgan was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on November 9, 1884. His father, John Morgan, a native of Greenburg, Indiana, where his parents had been pioneers, came to Utah in 1866. Here, perceiving the opportunity and need, the next year he established the "Morgan Commercial College and Normal School," which was highly successful before the rise of the University of Deseret under John R. Park. He was also prominent through many years of able and loyal service to the Latter-day Saint Church. Nicholas G.'s mother, Helen M. Groesbeck Morgan, was a daughter of Nicholas and Elizabeth Groesbeck, the former of whom was bom in Rensselaer County, New York, a county named for one of his ancestors. Nicholas Groesbeck came to Utah with a stock of merchandise in 1858, thereafter becoming one of the financial stalwarts of the territory, being highly regarded as an outstanding friend of the community who would give liberally of his wealth wherever he felt help was needed.

Nicholas G. Morgan early had need to develop and use the equipment of sterling character and ability received from this ancestry, for he had to face and surmount a double disaster. In 1892, when he was eight years of age, the great Cleveland depression struck the country and swept away the wealth of his immediate family, and two years later his father died. He was thus left to fight and pioneer his own way to outstanding success.

After attendance at the Salt Lake County grade schools, he entered the University of Utah which he attended from 1901 to 1907. Here he secured a background for the study of law. In pursuit of this objective he next attended the Georgetown School of Law (District of Columbia) for the three years from 1907 to 1910. Returning to Salt Lake, he served as chief deputy attorney from 1910 to 1913, and pursued the practice of law until 1945.

In that year he began to concentrate his energies to pioneering and promoting the development of some of the natural resources of the state. In this field his foresight and courage have brought outstanding success. Thus, among other enterprises, he promoted the Clear Creek gas field, from which comes much of the gas supplying Salt Lake City; he is presently interested in developing the oil and gas resources of Paradox Valley.

A profession and business, however, have not deterred but have rather aided Mr. Morgan in his rewarding attention to other interests and activities. Among positions he has effectively filled in his church are the following: in the superintendency of the Waterloo Sunday School, 1905 to 1907; member of the General Board of the Y.M.M.I.A., 1925 to 1935; and a member of three Stake High Councils, 1925 to 1935.

Mr. Morgan has long shown strong initiative and perseverence in seeking to arouse and keep alive an appreciation of the life and work of the pioneers. In recognition of his work and devoted interest in this field, he has been called upon to fill various offices and has received awards and honors. He served as president of the S.U.P. Luncheon Club. In 1955 he was elected president of the National Society of Utah Pioneers, and in the same year had bestowed upon him by Lincoln College, Lincoln, Nebraska, the honorary degree of Doctor of Humanities. He also has been given an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History "for a lifetime of unusual devotion to the cause of localized history." Since 1953 he has served as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Society, becoming its vice-president in April, 1957.

For several years Mr. Morgan has financed and promoted, and currently continues to promote, the creation of statues and memorials of persons and events of historic stature and significance, among which are the following: D. C. Jackling, in the State Capitol; Abraham Lincoln, presented to the state of Illinois for the New Salem Park; Lycurgus, to Sparta, Greece; Telegraph Monument, to Salt Lake City; Eliza R. Snow, to Daughters of Utah Pioneers; Karl G. Maeser, to Brigham Young University; bronze plaque of Judge Tillman D. Johnson, to Utah State Bar Association; and the statue now being made of Col. Thomas L. Kane to be presented to Salt Lake City.

JOEL EDWARD RICKS

Ralph V. Chamberlin

Dr. Joel E. Ricks was born at Rexburg, Idaho, October 18, 1889. He took his A.B. degree at the University of Utah in 1912 and his Master's and Doctor's degrees at the University of Chicago in 1920 and 1930. Son of pioneer stock, he married Katherine McKay in 1917.

He has had a long and distinguished educational record. He was the first principal of Gunnison High School between 1912 and 1917, from which position he went to Weber College to become head of their history department in 1917 and president of the college in 1920. Two years later he became chairman of the department of history of Utah State Agricultural College (Utah State University), in which position he remained until becoming professor emeritus in 1955.

During the thirty-three years at Utah State Dr. Ricks built the department from a one-man organization to one employing three men, full time, all with doctor's degrees. He became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society in 1925, and has spent thirty-two years in its service. He became president of the State Society in 1949 and served diligently and well in this position for eight years. These years saw great changes in the State Society; the employment of well-trained, professional staff members —the director, the state archivist, the librarian—has made the Society one of the most efficient and competent organizations in the historical field in the United States.

He has worked consistently for the collection by the State Society and by Utah State University of documents, pioneer diaries and letters, and other historical sources over the years. The result has been excellent collections of materials, both in Salt Lake City and in Logan. He is largely responsible also for the first two regional historical societies, those at Logan and at Provo, both of which are branches of the State Society. He is a member of Sons of Utah Pioneers, and Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Alpha Theta fraternities.

In 1938 Dr. Ricks published The History of Utah State Agricultural College at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the institution. Additional publications include, "Early Mormon Land System," and "Forms and Methods of Early Mormon Colonization." He was the prime mover behind the collection of materials for a centennial history of the settlement of Cache Valley. Pushing this project with vigor and dispatch, he assembled nine authors, the majority of them historically trained, to produce for the Cache Valley Centennial Commission in 1956 The History of a Valley, Cache Valley Utah- Idaho. Author of four chapters and general editor of this volume, Dr. Joel E. Ricks was honored for his work in April of 1957 when in the presence of the Cache Valley Historical Society Dr. A. R. Mortensen, director of the State Society, conferred upon him an award from the American Association for State and Local History for his work.

J. Duncan Brite

RUSSEL B. SWENSEN

Russel B. Swensen, member of the Board since 1952, is one of Utah's outstanding scholars in the field of the history and literature of the early Christian Church. Professor of history and from 1950 to 1954 chairman of the department of history at Brigham Young University, Dr. Swensen has long been active in promoting interest in the story of Utah and the Mormons.

Born in Pleasant Grove, Utah, on September 14, 1902, the son of Swen L. and Susan Brown Swensen, Russel divided his time as a youth between athletics, scholarship, and work on a farm and a railroad section gang. At Pleasant Grove High School he was student body president and valedictorian of the class of 1920. After two years at Brigham Young University, during which he played on the state championship basketball team of 1922, he went on an L.D.S. mission to Germany, where his interest in European history was whetted.

Graduating from the "Y" in 1926, he taught in Latter-day Saint seminaries in Mesa, Arizona, and Kamas and Hurricane, Utah. Then he was off to the University of Chicago for graduate work in early church history and Bible studies; the Ph.D. was the result in 1934, with a dissertation on "The Rise of the Sects as an Aspect of Religious Experience."

Soon after joining the faculty at B.Y.U., Dr. Swensen married a fellow instructor, Beulah Strickler; they now have four children, Swen, Shauna, Laird and Ann. The "Y" has been Russel's professional home since 1934, except for summers of study at the University of California in 1948 and at Columbia in 1954.

Dr. Swensen is most widely known for the writing he has done for the L.D.S. Church. A seminary text, New Testament Literature, appeared in 1940, and three Sunday School manuals on the New Testament were used in 1945-47; the last of the series, Acts and Epistles, was used again in 1956. A series of articles on Jesus and the early Church also appeared in The Instructor from 1945 to 1947. Among the positions he has held in the Mormon church are a counselorship in the Zion Park Stake Presidency (1929-30), superintendency of the Provo Stake Y.M.M.I.A (1938-41), and membership on the Provo Stake High Council since 1950.

A sports enthusiast, Russel was Provo City tennis champion in 1940; hiking is another hobby. Operatic and symphonic music and all forms of good literature claim his interest, and rapid-fire conversation is almost a trademark.

Dr. Swensen's historical interests are revealed not only through his teaching and writing and his membership on the Board of the State Historical Society, but through two terms as president of the Utah Valley Chapter of the Society, which he helped to organize in 1951, and through memberships in the Sons of Utah Pioneers, Sons of the American Revolution, and the historical honorary fraternity, Phi Alpha Theta. He is also a member of Phi Kappa Phi, and he was listed in Who's Who in America in 1951.

Richard D. Poll

LAMONT F. TORONTO

Lamont F. Toronto was bom in Salt Lake City on February 21, 1914, the son of Albert and Etta Felt Toronto. Reared and educated in Salt Lake City, Mr. Toronto graduated from the L. D. S. High School in 1931. After leaving school Lamont F. Toronto went directly into business, serving an apprenticeship with his father to learn the real estate business. This proved a valuable education, for Mr. Toronto eventually became the proprietor of his own real estate company.

On February 21, 1940, Mr. Toronto married Helen Davidson in Salt Lake City. To them four children were born, two boys and two girls.

From 1943 to 1945, Lamont Toronto interrupted his family life and business career to enter the armed forces. For a two-andone-half year period, he served with the United States Coast Guard as a radio technician. Within a few months after his release from active duty, Mr. Toronto was persuaded by his party members to run for public office. He was successful in his first attempt, winning the race for state representative on the Republican ticket from the Salt Lake County Eighth District. In 1952, Mr. Toronto was again prevailed upon to enter his name in candidacy for the office of Secretary of State. Once again his efforts met with success. Following an enlightened policy based on moderation, Mr. Toronto's term as secretary of state was viewed as one of considerable achievement, for the citizens of Utah returned him to that office in 1956.

Despite Lamont F. Toronto's busy schedule in state politics, he has found time to serve his church faithfully in numerous capacities. His highest office being that of bishop of the Duncan Ward, Park Stake from 1946 to 1956. Nor has Mr. Toronto neglected his community responsibilities. He has served as chairman, Special Activities Committee, Salt Lake Council of Boy Scouts of America; state chaplain and post commander, AMVETS; and member of Salt Lake Real Estate Board.

Professionally, Mr. Toronto is a broker and owner of his own real estate firm, Toronto & Company. Recently he was appointed secretary of the New World Insurance Company.

With the passage of House Bill 120 in March of this year, Mr. Toronto, as secretary of state, became ex-officio member of the Board of Trustees of the Utah State Historical Society. This was the culmination of a close relationship between Mr. Toronto and members of the staff of the Society. His interest in things historical and his close cooperation with the Historical Society make his addition to the Board a most welcome one.

E. L. C.

LEVI EDGAR YOUNG

Levi Edgar Young was born on February 2, 1874, in Salt Lake City, the son of Seymour B. and Anna Elizabeth Riter Young. His grandfather, Joseph Young, and his father both served as senior president of the First Council of the Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That distinction now rests on Levi Edgar Young.

Upon graduation from the University of Utah in 1895, President Young taught school in Salt Lake City, first at the Lowell School and later at the L.D.S. College. In the fall of 1898 he entered Harvard University, where he was privileged to study under several of America's outstanding scholars: Albert Bushnell Hart, Edward Channing, Ephraim Emerton, and William James. In the fall of 1899, President Young returned to his native state to accept an assignment in the department of history at the University of Utah. This association extended over a period of forty years. At the time of his retirement he was head of the department of history and political science, and today there are many of his former students who honor the memory of his inspirational teaching.

Levi Edgar Young's church activities and positions have been many, varied, and important. He represented his church in the German Mission in 1901, and the following year served as president of the Swiss Mission with headquarters in Zurich. From 1922 to 1934 he served as president of the Temple Square Mission and was directly in charge of the Bureau of Information and the Museum. In 1939, after his retirement from the university he spent four years as president of the New England Mission, where he was instrumental in the purchasing by the Latter-day Saints Church of the famous Alice Longfellow home at Number 100 Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This historic site is near Harvard Yard, the Washington Oak, and adjacent to the Henry W. Longfellow home.

Dr. Young's scholastic honors and achievements have been great. He has served on the advisory committee of the Exposition of the Indian Tribal Arts and was elected to the Royal Society of Edinburg, an honor that comes to only a few outstanding workers in natural science. He has served on the National Advisory Council of the American-Christian Palestine Committee; and for many years he has served on the Salt Lake Council of Religious Groups, serving as president of the latter at two different times. His service to the Utah State Historical Society has been exceptional. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees for more than half a century. In 1909 he was a member of the executive committee, president from 1923-24, elected vice-president in 1939, and served again as president from 1945-49. He is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution, has served in various capacities in that organization, and at present is chaplain of the Utah Chapter.

Included among the published works of Levi Edgar Young are: Chief Episodes in the History of Utah (1912); Dr. John Rocky Park (1919); The Founding of Utah (1924); The Great West in American History (1920); Utah, Its People, Resources, Attractions and Institutions (1915); and many other articles, addresses, and pamphlets.

On June 12, 1907, President Young married Valeria Brinton. Through this union three lovely daughters have been reared. Mrs. Young, a woman of culture, taste, and refinement has complemented her husband's talents. In their home numerous distinguished guests —people representing the church, university, state, nation, and abroad—have been entertained and all have felt the serenity of spirit and gracious hospitality which emanates from this beloved couple.

As a churchman and as a loyal American citizen, President Young has devoted his talents to writing and to helping his fellow men. He has carried forward from day to day at a quiet, dignified, and determined pace, and the impact of his influence has been felt both within his church and without. He is a man who is highly respected and deeply loved by all who know him.

THE DIRECTORA. RUSSELL MORTENSEN

Milton R. Hunter

A. Russell Mortensen is a native of Salt Lake City, Utah, born January 30, 1911, to Arlington Peter and Fannie Burnham Mortensen. He spent his childhood and much of his subsequent life in southern California where his immediate family, for the most part, still lives. In 1934 he married Bessie Burch, a native of Spanish Fork, Utah. They were the parents of six children who now range in age from seven to twenty-one. She died in California in 1950.

Dr. Mortensen attended Brigham Young University from which he obtained his B.S. degree in 1937. His graduate work was done at the University of California, Los Angeles, where the M.A. was conferred in 1940 and the Ph.D. in 1950. The doctoral dissertation was "The Deseret News and Utah, 1850-1867." His major field of study was American history with emphasis on the American West. The allied field was American literature since 1820.

For ten years Dr. Mortensen gained teaching experience on both the high school and university level, teaching U. S. and Latin American history. This experience was gained at Provo High School, University of California at Los Angeles, San Bernardino Valley College, San Bernardino, California, and the University of Utah.

During World War II, Director Mortensen served in the navy as a communications officer, spending a majority of the time in the far-western Pacific.

In 1950 the Board of Trustees of the Historical Society appointed him director of the Society and editor of its publications. In addition to editorial work on the Utah Historical Quarterly, he has edited and/or written numerous articles and book reviews which have appeared in various professional journals, magazines, and newspapers. Currently, with William Mulder as co-author, he is under contract to Alfred A. Knopf, publisher, for a book, America and the Mormons, which is to be published this fall. His most recent work for publication was the series of twenty-four articles on Historic Sites and Buildings, which appeared in the Sunday edition of the Salt Lake Tribune during the past winter and spring.

In addition to his scholarly pursuits, Dr. Mortensen has served on local civic organizations, including the board of directors of the- Family Service Society. For several years he has represented the Rocky Mountain States for the American Association for State and Local History. He is a member of the Sons of Utah Pioneers as well as several professional societies.

He and his wife, the former Florence Page of Davis County, Utah, reside at 2155 Wilmott Drive where they indulge in their hobby of gardening, each year producing many varieties of beautiful flowers.

D. S.

THE ARCHIVIST

EVERETT L. COOLEY

Everett L. Cooley was born in West Jordan, Utah, on September 3, 1917, to Henry W. and Laura Finlayson Cooley. He attended schools in West Jordan and all of his early life was spent there.

Dr. Cooley interrupted his university education in 1938 to serve two years as a missionary for the Latter-day Saints Church in Germany and Canada.

After receiving his B.A. from the University of Utah (1943), his academic career was again interrupted to serve as a lieutenant in the United States Navy for three years. The majority of the time was spent with amphibious forces in the Pacific where he participated in four major invasions. He is still active in the Naval Reserve and at present is commanding officer of a Naval Reserve communications unit.

After his service in the navy, Dr. Cooley returned to the University of Utah where, in 1947, he received his M.A. as an honor student. For two years, 1948-50, he was holder of the much coveted Willard D. Thompson scholarship at the University of California. In 1951 he received his Ph.D. in United States history at that institution. His doctoral dissertation was "Silver Politics."

In 1943, he married Elvera Bird, a native of Salt Lake City. They are now the parents of two young daughters and reside in Midvale.

In 1954 the Board of Trustees appointed him state archivist. Since that time, he has built up the archives to an important function of the Historical Society. In addition to his many duties as state archivist, Dr. Cooley has written and published several articles on various phases of Utah History. He was co-editor of History of A Valley, Cache Valley, which was published last year as an important feature of Cache Valley's Centennial Celebration. Recently he has returned from a tour of all Utah counties where he has been lecturing to county officers on the duties and functions of the state archives.

Dr. Cooley is a member of the Society of American Archivists and Phi Alpha Theta, an honorary historical fraternity. His spare time is spent indulging in his favorite past-time of gardening.

M. W.

THE LIBRARY

The library of the Utah State Historical Society forms the heart of the Society's activities and functions. Now that the housing problem has been improved, it is able for the first time in sixty years to serve adequately the members of the Society and the public. The reference and reading rooms of the library are located on the second floor of the building. The two adjoining rooms on the east have become the main reading rooms with the catalogs, indexes, newspaper clip files, subject files, manuscript files, and microfilm reader conveniently near at hand. There are tables and desks as well as lounge chairs for the library's users. The picture and map collections are located in the front room on the west. The fourth room of the library houses the Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., collection.

With the exception of the Utah and Western history classifications, all of the books, pamphlets, and periodicals (three-fifths of the library), are located in the main stacks in the basement room once occupied by the bowling alley. Besides the usual books, pamphlets, and periodicals, the WPA collections and government publications (census reports, Department of Agriculture, U. S. Geological Survey, and Bureau of Indian Affairs publications, for example) are located there.

The library grew hardly at all for the first forty years of the Society's existence, but during the 1930's and 1940's it received its first impetus for growth through the efforts of Mr. J. Cecil Alter and Miss Marguerite Sinclair; in fact the books given by and purchased from Mr. Alter form the nucleus of the library of today. The WPA collection consisting of the files and the publications of the Writers' Project and the Historical Records Survey, which came to the library in the 1940's, was a welcome and unique addition. With the arrival of Dr. A. R. Mortensen, the library entered its modern period of growth and expansion in 1950. Provisions were made in the Society's budget for books and periodicals to be purchased systematically; exchange agreements were arranged with other historical societies; a microfilm reader was purchased, and the microfilm department was started. In 1952 Mr. John James, Jr., was hired as librarian, and for the first time the library could be operated in a professional manner. Mr. James is a graduate of the University of Utah, where he majored in Western history and did graduate work in library science.

The job which faced Mr. James was a tremendous one. There were approximately six thousand books, three thousand pamphlets, and six thousand periodicals. Less than one hundred books had been catalogued, although quite excellent indexes had been prepared. There were some two thousand books which were of little value to a specialized research library in Utah and Western history, and these were given or traded to various libraries in the state: Brigham Young University, St. Mary of the Wasatch, Westminster College, and Latter-day Saints Genealogical Society. Since 1952 the remaining four thousand books have been catalogued, plus the two thousand more acquired by purchase or gift. In addition fifteen hundred pamphlets and twenty-five hundred photographs have been catalogued, but there is still a backlog of one thousand books, fifteen hundred pamphlets and more than twenty-five hundred photographs still to be processed. All of the periodicals have been accessioned and most of them indexed. The map, manuscript, and microfilm collections have all grown steadily, and although they have not yet been catalogued, they are most useful.

The research division is one of the busiest sections of the library. Here are maintained the newspaper clipping files which are so valuable when all other sources of information fail. Here students, scholars, and researchers find much of the material they require. It is in this division that the newspapers and other periodicals are accessioned and indexed. The library regularly receives more than one hundred periodicals—all the historical publications of the western states, most of the historical publications of the rest of the United States, all the publications of the Latter-day Saints Church and the other Mormon churches, plus many other important magazines. The periodical collection is one of the most valuable parts of the library because it is not duplicated elsewhere in Utah. The subject file (Pony Express, railroads, Indians, fur trade, Mormon Battalion, agriculture, education, geology, and mining) is another source of information where material is added constantly for increasing usefulness. The library receives inquiries by mail and by phone in ever-increasing number, and it is the reference librarian who usually finds the answers.

The picture collection is composed primarily of gifts from the WPA Utah Writers' Project, the Utah Publicity and Industrial Development Department, and Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr. A system of cataloguing the photographs with numerous cross-references and subject headings is proving to be most helpful.

The Nicholas G. Morgan, Sr., Library is an extremely valuable acquisition and is described below.

On microfilm there are hundreds of rare and historically significant books, pamphlets, newspapers, periodicals, diaries, letters and manuscripts—items gathered from the great libraries and depositories of the United States: the Bancroft and Huntington libraries in California, the Library of Congress and the National Archives in Washington, D. C, the New York Public Library, the Harvard and Yale University libraries, the Missouri Historical Society, and other depositories of Western and Mormon materials. The manuscript collection includes many rare and important items among which are the John M. Bernhisel papers, the William Clayton letter-books, the Francis M. Bishop diaries, and the Hosea Stout journals.

The most ambitious project of all so far as the library is concerned is the Union Catalog of published works pertaining to Mormons and Mormonism. Progress has been slow but steady since Mr. Dale L. Morgan turned it over to the Society in 1951. Work on the catalog is now nearing completion, and it is hoped it can be published sometime in the near future. In the Union Catalog an attempt is made to list all the items ever published about the Mormons and Mormonism, and to show in what libraries in the United States they can be found.

The Utah State Historical Society Library is the only institution of its kind in Utah. It is a research library, not a lending library and is open to the public from nine to five weekdays. It is now ready, willing, and able to serve the casual reader, the student, the writer, the scholar, and the researcher.

THE NICHOLAS G. MORGAN, SR., LIBRARY

On March 10, 1955, when by legislative enactment the governors' mansion at 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, was made the permanent residence of the Utah State Historical Society, commodious and excellent accommodations were furnished the Society for the establishment therein of a permanent library on Utah, Pioneer, and Western history.

It was at that time that Mrs. Morgan and I decided to present as a gift to the State Historical Society our extensive collection of books, maps, and pictures.

Included in the book library is a rare collection of periodicals published by the Latter-day Saint Church and its various auxiliary organizations dating back to its origin and up to the present time. The following in complete sets are included in the collection:

Latter Day Saints Messenger and Advocate (Kirtland,Ohio, 1830)

The Evening and Morning Star (Far West, Missouri, 1832) Times and Seasons (Nauvoo, Illinois, 1841-46)

Saints Herald (Nauvoo, Illinois) Millennial Star (Liverpool, England) Journal of Discourses (Liverpool, England) Juvenile Instructor (Salt Lake City, Utah) The Contributor (Salt Lake City, Utah) Improvement Era (Salt Lake City, Utah) The Young Ladies Journal (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Also in the collection are a first edition of The Book of Mormon, The Pearl of Great Price, an early Proclamation to the World issued by the general authorities of the church, and many of the early writings of Orson Pratt.

Many of these volumes came from the libraries of prominent and historic figures in church and Western history, including Joseph Smith, David Whitmer, John Whitmer, Orson Spencer, Lorenzo Snow, Eliza R. Snow, Wilford Woodruff, George A. Smith, John Morgan and others.

In the map section of this library are a number of historic maps which Mrs. Morgan and I have had made from original sources. There is one showing the original survey of Great Salt Lake City made by Orson Pratt and Henry G. Sherwood in the first two weeks in August, 1847. This map also shows the names of original owners of lots in the Pratt-Sherwood survey as they were distributed by Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball in September, 1848, under authority given them at a conference of the pioneers at that time.

A second pioneer map, "Five Acre Plat A," a portion of Big Field Survey which shows lot locations and the first owners thereof, is included in the map library. The area covered by this survey was bounded on the north by Ninth South Street, on the east by Thirteenth East and Fifteenth East Streets, on the south by the present Twenty-first South and on the west by Second West and Fourth West Streets.

A third pioneer map, Plat "D" and Empire Mill Tract, shows surveyed lots from South Temple north to Fourth Avenue and from "A" Street to "N" Street. It gives the names of the original owners and the original names of the avenues as shown in the first City Directory of 1869. For example First Avenue was called Fruit Street; Second Avenue was called Garden Street, etc.

Included in the library is what is thought to be the largest collection of historic pioneer pictures of Salt Lake City and adjacent areas. In addition are pictures of Nauvoo and other historic sites along the route from that city to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. In this collection are pictures of important places dating back to the birthplace of Joseph Smith. Many of these pictures have been enlarged and identified by expert penmanship.

Supplementing Mormon literature is a large collection of the works of famous English, French, and American authors—including Charles Dickens, Memoirs of the Courts of Europe, Shakespeare, Balzac, Voltaire, World's Greatest Literature, Orations from Homer to McKinley, Washington Irving, J. Fenimore Cooper, The World Story, Mark Twain, Classic Tales of Famous Authors, Ridpath's Library of Universal History, and Modern Eloquence.

It is quite natural for one to become attached to certain volumes for sentimental reasons. We have in our library books, maps, and pictures that could not now be bought for money. There are books purchased in second-hand stores, previously owned by great men and women of the past, and our sincere sympathy has gone out to those who have been forced, perhaps for economic reasons, to sell to those who traffic in books.

In presenting our library to the Utah State Historical Society to be housed and kept for reference purposes in the magnificent new home of that institution, we feel most fortunate. We know the historic collection of books, maps, and pictures we have spent a lifetime in assembling is secure, and that the illustrious men and women of the past who once owned them and whose names have been inscribed in many of them will be grateful forever for that which we have done. Then, too, the action we have taken, we feel, might stimulate others to do likewise.

N.G.M., Sr.

THE ARCHIVES

The twenty-ninth legislature (1951) assigned to the Utah State Historical Society the additional functions and responsibilities of a state archives. However, by failing to provide an accompanying increase in the appropriation, the Society was unable to employ additional personnel to effectuate the newly assigned tasks. Finally in February, 1954, the Board of Examiners granted a deficit appropriation to the Society to launch its archives program. An archivist, Dr. E. L. Cooley, was employed and began his work on July 1, 1954. By the time the thirty-first legislature (1955) convened, the work of the archives had progressed sufficiently that a separate appropriation was granted which allowed the employment of an additional person. The most recent legislature (1957) increased the appropriation and enacted two laws which affected the archives. House Bill 120 brought together into six sections all of the portions of the law concerning that division of the Historical Society. The archivist was made the official custodian of all noncurrent public records of permanent value. The law, for the first time, legally defined a public record and established certain standards to be met in microfilming operations. The other law affecting the archives is House Bill 224 which transferred the Graves Registration Department of the Office of the Adjutant General to the Military Records Section. This transfer will increase the archival staff by two persons, and will add significantly to the present military records.

During the less than three years of operation, the state archives can point with pride to some of its achievements—even though the job to be done, at times, appears to be overwhelming.

One of the first steps in the solution of some of the problems of the archives was made in January of this year when suitable vault space was acquired with the move into the former governors' mansion. For the first time, records can be shelved in an orderly fashion, and some of the really valuable state records brought into the custody of the archives.

Within the past four months, territorial and state records dating from 1850 and amounting to more than sixty cubic feet have been accessioned. These consist of:

Territorial Executive Records, 1850-93 (12.5 cu. ft.). Utah Commission Miscellaneous Ledgers, 1882-95 (5 cu. ft.). Constitutional Convention Reports and Proceedings, 1895 (2 cu. ft.). Secretary of State Letter Books, 1896-1911 (16.5 cu. ft.). Governors' Papers (J. Bracken Lee), 1949-56 (24 cu. ft.).

Only the lack of additional personnel has prevented the acquisition of many more records from both state and local governmental agencies. The employment of another person during the 1957-59 biennium should accelerate the transfer of records to the archives.

Another area of accomplishment in which the archives takes considerable pride is that of recording the debates of the House of Representatives. Prior to the thirty-second legislature (1957), the only documentation of the proceedings was that contained in the Journal, which is little more than a brief summary of the votes on bills and resolutions introduced into the legislature. Through the cooperation of the Secretary of State, Speaker of the House, and a special committee appointed to investigate the recording of the debates, the archives was able to have all the proceedings recorded on 164 unbreakable vinyl discs. These were carefully indexed by a member of the archives staff. The discs are destined to become the property of the archives after a "cooling off" period in the vaults of the secretary of state.

During the past month, the archives has been engaged in one of its biggest selling jobs. Each year the Utah State Association of County Officials sponsors a series of schools throughout the state. A meeting of two or three hours duration is held at each county seat. Various state and county officers are invited to serve as instructors. The state archivist was named a member of the panel this year. The subject of his presentation was entitled, "The Care and Preservation of Public Records." It is believed that much good will result from meeting local government officers in a school sponsored by their own organization.

While the archives has microfilmed some of the older records in its possession, it has never microfilmed on a large scale. In fact, it has neither the funds nor the personnel to attempt an extensive program. However, the recent legislature granted an appropriation to the secretary of state to begin a pilot microfilm project. The state archivist is to help set up the program. In addition a recent decision of the Board of Examiners will assure the archivist's being consulted on all major microfilming projects undertaken by any state agency. It is hoped that this will lead to more efficient use of microfilm.

The immediate goals of the archives call for the preparation of adequate finding aids for the records now in the archives. Then for the first time will the early history of Utah become available to the researcher.

OUR NEW HOME

For a long time the research materials and other services of the Society had grown faster than the housing facilities. In recent years the office and library space became simply and completely inadequate, which rendered it extremely difficult for the Historical Society to live up to its charge under the law "to collect, preserve, and disseminate" historical information and materials.

The 1955 legislature finally came to the aid of the Society. With very little opposition, House Bill 225 passed both houses and was signed into law by the governor. This bill provided that: "The Utah State Historical Society is authorized to use the present official governors' residence and grounds at 603 East South Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah, for their offices, library and archives after February 1, 1957, or after the governor in writing advises the Society that he and his family have vacated the premises, whichever occurs first." In conformance with the official letter from the governor stating that he and his family would vacate the building on January 7, 1957, the Society took possession of the property and immediately began the long-awaited move into its new home.

With adequate quarters, the Historical Society is on the verge of great opportunities and growth. For the first time this official state agency charged with the custody of Utah's great historical traditions will be able to live up to its responsibilities. Its new home gives it physical identity, and the adequate and comfortable quarters, easily accessible to all, will serve to encourage far greater numbers of the historically minded to use the library and services of the Society.

It is essential that the manner in which the Society uses its new home be understood. During the nearly two decades of the building's use as a governors' mansion, it virtually was required to serve a dual purpose. It was supposed to be the home of the incumbent governor and his family and at the same time serve a semi-public use—receptions, teas, and other social functions—neither of which it adequately could do simultaneously. Under the occupancy of the State Historical Society, it is purely and simply a PUB­ LIC building. All serious students, researchers, and others having use of the library are more than welcome. Outside of the rooms reserved for the library, the building and grounds generally are open to the public.

The building is in an excellent state of preservation and is an historical and museum piece in itself. In many ways it represents to Salt Lake City and Utah what the Bowers' Mansion is to the fabulous Comstock, or the Knob Hill mansions are to San Francisco. Ornately, but beautifully furnished both inside and out, a tour through the spacious rooms is reminiscent of the Gay Nineties and high society and luxurious living after the turn of the century.

Under the administration of the Historical Society, the various public rooms on the main floor will and must be used as presently furnished. The second floor serves the various functions of a library such as reading rooms, microfilm rooms, map rooms, and study rooms of various kinds. In addition, this floor, and others also if necessary, will permit the Society to accept and house important historical collections which otherwise would go into private institutions, be sent out of the state, or sold piecemeal all over the country—as happened in recent years to one of the most important libraries ever collected in this state. There are at present several important Utah collections which are waiting only to find suitable and permanent homes. The third floor, particularly the ballroom, can be used as a gallery for the display of historical pictures and incidental antiques and relics which are offered to the Society from time to time and which the Society heretofore has refused for lack of display space. One of the most completely used portions of the building is the basement. The large room which runs across the south side of the building and which once was occupied by the bowling alley now houses the main stacks of the library. Three other large rooms now serve the archives division as vaults for public records, state publications, and manuscripts. The basement hall with desks, tables, and files serves as a workroom and processing area.

The large two-story coach house has great potential value for storage purposes and future archival vaults.