March 15, 2023 by Maggie Kopp
A new exhibit for Women’s History Month is now on display in the Special Collections lobby area. In Her Own Words features autobiographical writings by 19th century American women, including prominent and lesser-known writers. Their life experiences reflect many of the major themes and events of 19th century American history, such as the Great Awakening, the Civil War, and immigration and westward expansion, as well struggles for the rights of women and minorities.
February 23, 2023 by Ben Harry
ICE CREAM & ELEVATORS (1971)
This Student-Produced film sought to capture the traditions both formal and informal of BYU student life in 1971.
In the spring of 1971 several students at Brigham Young University produced this film.
It is a playful campus romance that captures a slice-of-life of BYU campus culture at the
time and some of the cherished dating traditions of that era.
The 28-minute movie was premiered before 6,000 students in the Smith Field House
on campus on May 6, 1971, and it ran until the end of the term in the on-campus Varsity
Theater.
Since that time it has been an underground cult classic at BYU.
FILM RESTORATION AT BYU
At the BYU Motion Picture Archive we have a variety of historical materials.
Sometimes these are Hollywood film artifacts: film prints of Hollywood-produced films. Some of these are common (CASABLANCA) and some of these are rare (WINGED VICTORY).
A special group of materials are those absolutely unique camera original elements that we find in our collections. From these original elements we can now scan with cutting edge technology and see the films of yesteryear as they have never been seen before.
This is film restoration: to go back to a purer source of information so that what was there in the beginning can be brought back and enjoyed in its fulness.
The library has generously afforded me to offer internships in film restoration to students. Together, we work to restore titles for which we have the original film materials.
On March 3, we are holding our next RESTORATION SHOWCASE, where a student will present his project.
YOU WILL NOT WANT TO MISS THIS.
Historical. Fun. Interesting. Entertaining.
Join us, and some special guests, as we take a walk down memory lane with newly-restored media as it has never been seen before.
Samuel Bateman, 1832-1911
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: Samuel Bateman papers (MSS 128). This collection contains materials documenting Samuel Bateman’s personal and family life. Included are some of Bateman’s handwritten diaries for the years 1886-1888, 1899-1901, and 1901-1909. Also included are typescripts, microfilm, and scanned copies of these diaries, and typescripts of some correspondence to and from Samuel Bateman, dated 1868-1886. His correspondence discusses guarding John Taylor and his friendship with Wilford Woodruff, who were both Presidents of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and other personal and family matters. A typescript of a biography of Samuel Bateman written by James A. Oliver is also included. Also includes edited and annotated versions of transcriptions of Samuel Bateman journal and letters, and James Oliver’s biography of Bateman, edited by Mark Burkinshaw, a great-great grandson of Samuel Bateman. Also includes “The Life and Times of Samuel Bateman” – a biography of Bateman by Burkinshaw using excerpts from Bateman’s journals that are annotated by Burkinshaw in 2016 (not available digitally).
John Taylor (1808-1887)
Samuel Bateman was born July 1, 1832, in Manchester, England to Thomas Bateman and Mary Street. His father joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1838 and emigrated to Nauvoo, Illinois, in 1839. Bateman’s family arrived in Utah in 1850, and Samuel volunteered to go on a mission to Iron County that December. On November 27, 1854 he married Marinda Allen. Bateman was called to raise a platoon of soldiers in September 1857 to confront Johnston’s army, and the platoon joined others at Fort Bridger, Wyoming. Led by Lot Smith, these soldiers confronted the army wagon train, burned wagons, ran off livestock, and succeeded in stalling the army from entering the Salt Lake Valley. Later Bateman returned home, but was appointed to watch the army’s movements as the Saints prepared to move south. In the spring of 1861, he accompanied Brigham Young and others to visit the settlements of southern Utah. Bateman attended the “School of the Prophets” in 1868, and in 1870 he was asked to accompany Brigham Young on a trip to settlements in northern Utah. He married a second wife, Harriet Egbert, in 1871. Bateman later served as guard to John Taylor, third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and was with him during the anti-polygamy raids and his death in July 1887 in Kaysville, Utah. He also served as a guard and friend to Wilford Woodruff, who succeeded John Taylor as president of the Church. From 1888-1889, Bateman served a term in the Utah penitentiary for plural marriage. For work, he was a brick and adobe maker, mason, miller, farmer, and had many other trades. Bateman served as superintendent of the Sunday School in the West Jordan Ward and later as senior president of the 33rd quorum of the Seventy. He died on January 23, 1911, of Bright’s disease.
A new small exhibit in Special Collections highlights first editions of major economic texts, including works by Adam Smith, David Hume, and David Ricardo. The Wealth of Nations: Earthly Things, Heavenly Things pairs these famous works with primary sources about the economic history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The exhibit is on display in the Special Collections Reading Room through January and February.
Eli Wiggill, 1811-1884
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: Eli Wiggill autobiography (MSS 9137). This collection consists of a four-volume handwritten autobiography of Eli Wiggill. It includes an account of the emigration from England of the settlers of South Africa, the wars and events of South Africa, the arrival of missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in South Africa, immigration to the United States and travel on the Mormon Trail, the diamond works in South Africa, and an account of familial events in Utah. The record was created by Wiggill in 1883, one year prior to his death. It also includes a brief entry by his granddaughter Susie M. Dodge, written a few years after Wiggill’s death.
Eli Wiggill was born on November 5, 1810 or 1811 in Gloucestershire, England to Isaac Wiggill and Elizabeth Grimes. In the Winter of 1819-1820, his family migrated to South Africa where they were some of the first English settlers in that country. On February 20, 1831, Eli married Susannah Bentley in Grahamstown, South Africa, and they had nine children together. Eli worked as a wagon maker. In 1837 Eli began working as a preacher for the Methodist Wesleyan Church, for which had been a member since the 1820s, and later taught Sunday School and doing other work in building up the mission and teaching the native people of the area. They survived the Kaffir Rebellion (1835) and the War of the Axe (1850). In 1857, Wiggill was introduced to missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was baptized on March 1, 1858, along with his wife, Susannah, and daughter, then later re-baptized with many of his family on June 1, 1858. Wiggill would lead the branch of Latter-day Saints until February 1861, when he and his family migrated to Utah. The Wiggill family eventually settled in Kaysville, where Wiggill was involved in carpentry and farming. In August 1869, Susannah Wiggill died of dysentery. Soon after this, Eli determined to return to South Africa, which he did as a missionary from from December 1869 to May 1873. In 1873, Wiggill married Ann Brown Hammer. Eli Wiggill died on April 13, 1884 and was buried in Kaysville, Utah.
Walter Mason Camp (1867-1925)
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new landing page for the Walter Mason Camp collections (MSS 57 and MSS P 16). This new landing page will provide increased access to researchers of these important collections with links to the finding aids and digital collections to both the Walter Mason Camp papers (MSS 57) and the Walter Mason Camp photographs (MSS P 16). Previously only a selection of Camp photographs had been available online digitially. Now, all original photographs in the collection have been digitized and are available online. Some of the photographs include disturbing images, and warnings have been provided to researchers as needed.
Also available on the landing are links to the finding aids of two other signficant Camp collections at the Lilly Library at Indiana University-Bloomington and Denver Public Library. The Lilly Library has also digitized their collection.
L. Tom Perry Special Collections at BYU is one of three primary repositories of the papers and photographs of author, editor and researcher Walter Mason Camp. Camp is most known for his interviews of hundreds of Native Americans and white soldiers involved in the American Indian Wars of the late 19th century. Along with BYU Special Collections, papers related to Camp and his research are housed in the Lilly Library on the campus of Indiana University-Bloomington and the Denver Public Library.
Red Star, ca. 1880
The Walter Mason Camp papers (MSS 57) at BYU consist of 9 boxes (4 linear ft.) of materials pertaining to Camp’s research on the Indian Wars of the Plains (1864-1890), with an emphasis on the Battle of Little Bighorn of 1876. The collection Includes his personal correspondence with officers, enlisted men, and Indian Scouts of the U.S. 7th Calvary. It also contains Walter Camp’s interviews with Native American individuals associated with the battles, general research and field notes. The collection is arranged into seven series or groupings: 1) Biographical information; 2) Correspondence; 3) Interviews; 4) Notes; 5) Typescripts of selected interview; 6) Writings; and 7) Research and reference file. These papers were compiled by Camp with the end purpose of being drafted into a book on the topic. Materials are largely textual comprising correspondence, notes, clippings, typescripts, publications, blueprints, maps, and related printed material. The collection materials date from approximately 1870 to 1943.
BYU also houses a large photograph collection related to Walter Mason Camp and his research (MSS P 16). These photographs were acquired at the same time as the Walter Mason Camp papers. The collection contains over 200 photographs of battlefields and Native American groups and portraits of noted individuals who were prominent in the Indian Wars including George A. Custer and other U.S. Army and Native American participants. Original prints (albumen, cartes-de-visite, cabinets, etc.) copy prints, postcards, halftones, engravings and selected copy negatives prepared by the repository staff. The bulk of the collection was compiled by Walter Mason Camp and pertains almost exclusively to the Indian Wars of North America from 1865 to 1890.
Provo Tabernacle, ca. 1930
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: Provo Tabernacle account books (MSS 246). The collection contains handwritten ledgers and account books related to the construction and function of the Provo Tabernacle between 1882 and 1894. The items list financial donations and other contributions given by the various wards of the Utah Stake to support the tabernacle and stake functions.
Provo Tabernacles, ca. 1900. Building at left is the original, smaller tabernacle that stood here from 1861-1919.
The Provo Tabernacle served as tabernacle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1898 to 2010 in downtown Provo, Utah. During these years it served as a venue for various religious and cultural events.
The first tabernacle was smaller and stood near the larger one from 1861 to 1919. Construction for the second and larger Provo tabernacle, often referred to as the Utah Stake Tabernacle or the New Provo Tabernacle, started in 1883. The building was designed by William Folsom, and could seat 3,000 individuals in the auditorium and balconies. Harvey H. Cluff oversaw construction. Much of the funding for the construction came from donations by wards in the Utah Stake, which included most of Utah County. The tabernacle was in use by 1886, when it held the Church’s general conference on April 6 when members of the First Presidency were in hiding for practicing polygamy. The tabernacle was dedicated on April 17, 1898 by George Q. Cannon, with President Joseph F. Smith also in attendance.
Over the years, the Provo Tabernacle hosted several important community and cultural events, including performances by Abbie Carrington in 1891 and Sergei Rachmaninoff in 1938, and a visit by U. S. President William Howard Taft in 1909. In 1975, the building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
A four-alarm fire was reported at the tabernacle early in the morning of December 17, 2010, entirely gutting the building and causing the roof to collapse. In the October 2011 semi-annual general conference of the Church, President Thomas S. Monson announced that the Provo Tabernacle would be rebuilt to serve as a second temple in Provo. A public open house was held in early 2015, and the temple was dedicated on March 20, 2016.
Are books always at the top of your Christmas gift list? If so, you’ll want to take a look at two of Special Collections’ small rotating exhibits.
Fine Printing: The Next Generation’s Heirlooms showcases the work of contemporary printers who value traditional methods and produce amazing, well-crafted and expertly-designed books using high-quality materials. These books are works of art in themselves, and are highly collectible, and not just for libraries and museums. This exhibit can be found in the Special Collections department’s main lobby.
A Christmas and New Year’s Gift: Remembering the Nineteenth Century Literary Annual features examples of a genre which dominated the British and American book trade in the 1820s through 1850s. Issued annually in time for holiday gift giving, these trendy and elegant little books featured short stories and poems alongside reproductions of contemporary artwork. This exhibit is located in the Special Collections department’s reference area.
November 1, 2022 by Ryan K. Lee
Jacob Hamblin (1819-1886)
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: Jacob Hamblin diaries and autobiography (Vault MSS 770). This is a handwritten diary of Jacob Hamblin, with entries from June 21, 1868 to 1886. Entries relate to farming conditions and crop yields in the Kanab Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, travels along Pariah River, and an account of a conference conducted by Brigham Young on April 2, 1870, dedicating a settlement in Kanab. A separate account titled, “Journal of the Moquis” dated September 28, 1869, to October 5, 1869, written by an individual other than Hamblin, relates events of a mission to the Moquis (Hopi) Indians led by Jacob Hamblin and W. M. Maxwell. The account lists the names and organization of those who participated in this mission. Also contains an account covering the period of winter to fall 1885, with a copy of Jacob Hamblin’s call from Wilford Woodruff to labor as a missionary among the “Lamanites” in 1885, and a transcript of a blessing received by Jacob Hamblin under the hands of Brother McBride of Smithville, Utah. It also tells of travels between Utah and Old and New Mexico, with the author appearing to be Jacob Hamblin. The diary includes an account of a man traveling on the railroad and working as a hired farm laborer, a record of horses purchased by an individual in Pine Valley Utah in 1874, and instructions for pioneer remedies for blood poison, tape worm, and “malerial poison in the blood.”
Jacob Hamblin was born in Salem, Ohio on April 6, 1819. He was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints on March 3, 1842, at the age of twenty-two. He married Lucinda Taylor (1823-1858) who was baptized soon afterward. However, when Hamblin proposed moving west, Lucinda refused to go. In February 1849, Hamblin and Lucinda decided to end their marriage, and he continued west without her, taking their four children with him. In September of the same year, Hamblin met and married Rachel Judd, a widow, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. She had two children from her deceased husband, and Hamblin and Rachel had five more children together. In 1857, he married Sarah Priscilla Leavitt (1841-1927); they had nine children. Hamblin also had six children with his last wife, Louisa Bonelli (1843-1931). In addition to the twenty-four children by his four wives, he adopted three Native American children.
Hamblin was called by President Brigham Young to work with the Paiute Indians of Southern Utah. This calling began a lifetime of work with various tribes. He was later called as the president of the Indian Mission. He made nine missionary visits to the Hopi villages of Northern Arizona and, in the process, reopened the ancient Ute Crossing on the Colorado River. He pioneered the Lee’s Ferry Crossing, and in 1862-1863 traveled completely around the Grand Canyon. In 1870, he guided United States government explorer Major John Wesley Powell on a survey of the Grand Canyon. In November of that same year, he was responsible for the negotiation of the Treaty of Fort Defiance, New Mexico.
In 1869, Hamblin moved from Santa Clara to Kanab, Utah, then nine years later he moved to northern Arizona. In 1882, Hamblin moved to Pleasanton, New Mexico where he died four years later in 1886.
October 24, 2022 by Ryan K. Lee
David Candland, 1819-1902
L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: David Candland diary (MSS 1627, Box 1, Folder 1). This is a diary kept by David Candland from 1841 to 1861. The item documents Candland’s service in the British Mission from 1846-1847, and the Eastern States and British Provinces (Canada) from 1851 to 1852. Candland also includes his experience during the Utah War of 1857-1858. Also includes information about Candland’s family and of his occupational activities. Also includes some hand-written lists and charts, information about his family, and a few diary entries on his birthday in 1900 and 1901. There are also a few pages at the very end of the volume that include some entries about marriages, births, deaths, and baptisms. In total there are about 107 pages written on, with the majority of the volume being blank.
David Candland was born on October 15, 1819 in Highgate, Middlesex County, England to Samuel Candland and Sarah Betts. He was baptized in May of 1841 at the age of twenty-two and confirmed a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints by Lorenzo Snow. In 1842, Candland sailed for the United States with the Orson Hyde Company, arriving in Nauvoo, Illinois in May. On November 16, 1842 he was ordained a member of the Sixth Quorum of the Seventy. He married Mary Ann Barton on March 28, 1844. In Nauvoo he worked as a school teacher and store clerk and eventually became a secretary of President Brigham Young.
Candland was called as a missionary to the British Mission in January 1846. During his mission, he authored the first published series of Latter-day Saint pamphlets, known collectively as “The Fireside Visitor; or Plain Reasoner” (copies of which can be found online in the Internet Archive). In August of 1847, he returned to Winter Quarters, Iowa and soon after moved to Kanesville, Iowa where he worked as a store clerk. In 1851 Candland was called on another mission the Eastern States and British Provinces, returning to Kanesville in March 1852. Soon after he emigrated to Utah with the Ezra T. Benson Company.
David Candland married six additional wives from 1852 to 1857: Mary Jane Webb (October 29, 1852), Lucy Jones (April 9, 1853), Bertha Mary King (December 25, 1854), Anne Woodhouse (November 1, 1855), Hannah Ann Wright (March 5, 1857) and Katherine Ann Jost (April 25, 1858).
In August 1856, Candland opened the Globe Restaurant and Bakery, although it closed two years later. In Salt Lake City he taught school, clerked, and as stage manager for the Deseret Dramatic Association. He also served as doorkeeper at the Salt Lake Tabernacle. In 1859, Candland was appointed to represent Salt Lake County in the Utah Territorial Legislature. In 1861, he moved his family to Mount Pleasant, Utah where he served as justice of the peace, assessor and collector, and prosecuting general attorney for Sanpete County. Candland died on March 12, 1902 at the age of 82. He was the father of thirty-six children.