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Eli Wiggill autobiography

Eli Wiggill, Salt Lake City, ca. 1861, Courtest of Michael T. Lowe

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 collections

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.

Holiday gift books, old and new

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.

Jacob Hamblin diaries and autobiography

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.

David Candland diary

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.

John Peter Sorensen papers

John Peter Sorensen journal page (Volulme 3, 1881-1883)

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: John Peter Sorensen papers (MSS 1453). This collection includes diaries, genealogy, finanical records, and an autobiography, dated from 1879 to 1920. Sorensen writes about his dreams, family, finances, and opinions of various books, church meetings, and the doctrine of plural marriage. He also tells about his experiences as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand, Australia, Denmark, and Sweden. Genealogy records included in a family record detailing the births, marriages, and deaths of John Peter Sorensen, his wives, and their children, dating up to 1920. Also includes a financial record book dating from 1907 for Pioneer Nursery Company, but which was also used to record financial information by descendants or others up to 1970.

John Peter Sorensen was born October 17, 1837 in Denmark. He traveled the world as a ship carpenter before settling in Salt Lake and joining The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He went on a mission to New Zealand in 1879 and to Denmark in 1887. He married Eva Gyllenskog in 1872, Olivia Monson in 1882, and Alma Charlotte Samuelson in 1883, and was sealed to six other women. He died on December 20, 1909 in Salt Lake City.

Claire Wilhelm Collection on Zane Grey

Photograph of Claire Wilhelm, Mildred Smith, Zane Grey and Lillian Wilhem Smith, August 1917

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: Claire Wilhelm Collection on Zane Grey (MSS 8277).  The collection contains documentation of Wilhelm’s interactions with Grey while accompanying him on various expeditions. The collection contains black and white photographs of Zane Grey and his family, Claire Wilhelm and various other women on trips with Zane Grey, Native Americans, and scenes from Zane Grey movies. It also contains ephemera collected by Claire Wilhelm including silhouettes of Zane and Lina Elise Grey, a Christmas card from Zane Grey to Wilhelm, and a Zane Grey book plate. Materials date from approximately 1900 to 1956.

Claire Wilhelm was born on July 20, 1898 in New Jersey to Henry T. and Leonore Wilhelm. She was the youngest of seven children, the oldest of which was the artist Lillian Wilhelm Smith. She was the cousin of Lina Elise Grey, wife of Western novelist Zane Grey. She accompanied Zane Grey on various fishing and camping expeditions beginning in 1914. In 1918, Grey’s attentions turned to other women and Wilhelm found herself estranged from him. She married Phillips Carlin in June 1921. In 1924, Grey began inviting Wilhelm to accompany him once again after Wilhelm sustained serious injuries in a car accident. She entered into Grey’s employ as a secretary when her marriage began to fail. After nine months with Grey, Wilhelm finally parted ways with him and returned to New York City where she resolved the strains in her marriage. She had two daughters, Virginia and Patricia, and gave up travelling to raise them, however, she continued to correspond with Zane and Lina Elise Grey for many years afterward. Claire Wilhelm died on January 15, 1984, in Branford, Connecticut.

Archive Classics Series: BEWARE OF DARKNESS (1973) — Friday, October 21, 7pm – Library Auditorium

We are happy to announce our next installment in the ARCHIVE CLASSICS series.

This series features the presentation of cinematic gems held in the BYU MOTION PICTURE ARCHIVE.

These films are esteemed to be of particular importance to BYU Students, focusing on depictions, representations, and expressions of latter-day saints in the medium of the cinema.

The plan for the series is to hold one screening per academic semester and include a presentation that will place them in their time and context.

~ BEWARE OF DARKNESS ~      (1973)   

A spiritual medium bridges our physical world and the realm of deceased spirits.

A visiting psychologist, who studies the limits of fear, wants to see how far she and her husband are willing to go to experience the thrill of the unknown. 

In the early 1970s, recent convert to the Church, Jose Maria Oliveira, sought to use his position, expertise, and connections in the Spanish film industry to expose audiences to the plan of salvation.

He produced two films, BEWARE OF DARKNESS (1973) and THE DEAD, THE DEVIL AND THE FLESH (1974). Both deal with tortured souls in the afterlife who will only find peace by accepting Jesus Christ as their personal savior. These were commercial films, with many genre elements that would broadly qualify as ‘horror’ films, but he additionally sought to promote his faith through them.

The BYU Motion Picture Archive, located in Special Collections, acquired the likely only remaining copies of these films in 2020. Newly-restored in High Definition, these films will be presented and premiered to a public audience in the Library auditorium this Fall for the first time in over 50 years for reconsideration (October 21 and November 21, respectively).

Spotlight on Jose Maria Oliveira:

Jose Maria Oliveira is a filmmaker who began his career by working for the William Morris Agency in Spain. In 1968 his life would be changed with his conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he had to travel to France to be baptized as the Church was prohibited in Francoist Spain. Desirous to spread his excitement about his new faith, and his particular interest in the ideas of the spirit world, he called upon actors and other industry professionals to support his production of two feature films, BEWARE OF DARKNESS (1973) and THE DEAD, THE DEVIL AND THE FLESH (1974). Both of these films engage with the world spirits enter when separated from their bodies, seeking to offer audiences both entertainment and opportunities for reflection.

Jose now resides in Salt Lake City.

This is one you don’t want to miss!

Friday, October 21, 7pm – Library Auditorium

Henry Green Boyle diaries

Henry Green Boyle (1824-1902)

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a newly digitized collection: Henry Green Boyle diaries (MSS 156).  This collection contains a handwritten autobiography and diaries related to Boyle’s life and experience as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The autobiography was written beginning in 1844 and, in the same volume, he starts a diary in 1846. Boyle kept 14 additional volumes of diaries, dating from 1855 to 1889. Most of the content relates to Boyle’s missionary experiences in California and to Southern States Mission, including while he was mission president from 1875 to 1878. Also includes information about his service in the Mormon Battalion, helping to establish the colony of San Bernadino, farming in Payson, Utah, and Arizona, and life as a polygamist. Collection dated 1844-1912.

Henry Green Boyle was born March 7, 1824, in Tazewell County, Virginia, the son of John Boyle and Jane E. Taylor. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1843. Boyle lived in Nauvoo, Illinois, when he was called on his first mission to Virginia in 1844 at the age of 20. After the Saints were forced from Nauvoo, Boyle joined the Mormon Battalion to serve in the war with Mexico from 1846 to 1848. On 6 September 1849 Henry married Keziah Donnell Holladay and made a home in Salt Lake City, where he raised grain. In 1850 he moved to Northern Utah, and began farming near the Weber River. Boyle returned to California in 1851 as missionary to help settle the Mormon colony of San Bernadino. Tragedy struck in 1853 when Keziah died. Boyle spent the remainder of his time in California as a missonary, preaching the gospel and obtaining money for the settlement at San Bernardino. In 1857 he returned to Utah. On 24 February 1859 Henry married Elizabeth Shumate Ballard and six years later, on 30 September 1865, Boyle entered the practice of plural marriage and married Arabella McKinley. Four years later, on 27 September 1869, Boyle married Martha Francis Taylor. Boyle’s family would later settle in Payson, Utah, and Graham County, Arizona.

In 1867-1869 he filled a mission to the Southern States, where he baptized three hundred persons, and brought a second company of 160 Saints from the South to Utah by rail. He filled a second mission to the South and returning he brought seventy saints with him to Utah. Boyle served as president of the Southern States Mission from 1875 to 1878.

Henry was arrested on charges of practicing polygamy on 20 October 1887 and he was imprisoned in the territorial penitentiary. After his release from prison Henry relocated with his wife Arabella to Pima, Graham County, Arizona, in 1889, where he died 8 September 1902 at age 78.

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