Nellie was born, in 1908, to Moroni McArthur and Emma Jarvis Cottam McArthur, two longtime St. George residents and descendants of early Southern Utah pioneers. She was the second of ten children, but after losing her older brother, Nellie was the big sister. Nellie carefully maintained family records and scrapbooks for her parents and each of her siblings, which are contained in her collection.

Moroni McArthur and Emma Jarvis Cottam McArthur family, 1930

In 1929 she married Emil Gubler, the son of an original Santa Clara, Utah, pioneer.  After their marriage in the St. George LDS Temple, the couple moved to Santa Clara and Nellie claimed to “like it so well” that she never moved back to St. George, a mere 5-7 miles away. Emil eventually became part-owner of the Rocky Mountain Produce Company. Emil and Nellie raised twelve children, nine sons and three daughters, in their Santa Clara home. At the time of her death in 2007, Nellie and Emil were the progenitors of an extraordinary family of 73 grandchildren, 188 great-grandchildren, and 52 great-great-grandchildren.

Emil Gubler and Nellie McArthur Gubler family, 1962

Nellie McArthur Gubler was involved in her community.  She participated in the annual Swiss Days in Santa Clara, the Dixie Roundup, and the St. George Heritage Days for many years. She was also a member of the Santa Clara chapter of the Daughters of Utah Pioneers.  In addition, she served in several Latter-day Saint auxiliary organizations, including the Relief Society, Primary, and the Mutual Improvement Association.

Nellie devoted much time in her life to preserving Southern Utah community and religious history. She compiled several volumes that documented the foundation and history of Santa Clara, St. George, and many of the local, founding families. Nellie was particularly interested in the history of Southern Utah schools, buildings, and LDS church organizations, and in family history. She also studied the history of the Santa Clara Ward and its auxiliaries.

Nellie McArthur Gubler’s family papers contain scrapbooks that document each of these areas and reflect her passion for family, Southern Utah, and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During her lifetime Nellie served and loved those around her, but she also preserved an historical record of her own life, her family, and her beloved Southern Utah.

A finding aid, prepared by Student Manuscript Processor, Audrey Spainhower and Curator, John M. Murphy,  is found here:  http://findingaid.lib.byu.edu/viewItem/MSS%207551.

The scope of music covers all genres and types. The songs for the theatre are mostly for Drury Lane and Covent Gardens, but also for Lincoln’s Inn Theatre and the King’s Theatre. There are songs published for societies, including the Anacreontic Society, the ‘Je ne scai quoi Club,’ and the Beefsteak Club. The songs include works by Purcell, Weldon, Carey, Leveridge, Handel, Courteville, Gluck, Eccles, Abbington, Boyce, and numerous others.

This collection is distinctive for several reasons. Many of the songs are notably rare with only one or two other known copies worldwide. The collection also gives information on numerous singers, including the types and ranges of their voices and the style of their singing. A wide cross-section of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century English, Scottish, and Irish poetry and verse is represented in the texts.
(Text adapted from dealer’s description. Collection acquired through Lisa Cox.)

MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus
Partitur der W.A. Mozart’schen Ouverture zu seiner Oper Die Zauberflöte, in genauer Übereinstimmung mit dem Manuscript des Komponisten, so wie er solches entworfen instrumentirt und beendet hat, herausgegeben und mit einem Vorbericht begleitet von A. André. Original Ausgabe. [Full score]. Offenbach, J. André, [1829]. 3ff., 28 +2pp., lithographed oblong folio, p.n.5200.
Not listed in Michael Twyman’s Early Lithographed Music (London, 1996).
A significant lithographed publication printed in red and black. André in his preface explains that Mozart’s manuscript shows that he composed it in two stages – first the string parts (here printed in black) – and secondly the complete orchestration (here printed in red). He also indicates and prints in the score Mozart’s crossings out of complete bars and other smaller details.

CALEGARI, Francesco
Six Themes avec Variations Pour la Guitarre… Oeuv.12. Leipsic, Fr. Hofmeister, [ca. 1805]. 11pp., lithographed folio, p.n.425.
Not listed in Michael Twyman’s Early Lithographed Music (London, 1996)

DIABELLI, Anton
Sonate tres facile a quatre Mains pour le Pianoforte… Vienne, Magasin de l’imprimerie chimique I.R. priv., [ca. 1807 or 8]. 15pp., lithographed oblong folio, p.n.679.
Twyman’s p.224 No.9, recording a different issue to the present example. Our copy is without mention of the opus number, and the title page is laid out differently.

ROMBERG, Andreas
Trois Quatuors pour deux Violons, Alto et Violoncelle… Oeuvre 16. [Parts.] Offenbach, Jean André, [1807]. 19, 15, 15, 15pp., lithographed folio, p.n.2327.
Not listed in Michael Twyman’s Early Lithographed Music (London, 1996).

Harvey Fletcher’s association with Brigham Young University began in the early years of the twentieth century as a high school student. Fletcher graduated from Brigham Young High School in 1904 and promptly enrolled as a student at Brigham Young University. In 1906 Fletcher helped lay out the block Y that has come to symbolize Brigham Young University across the world. Fletcher graduated in 1907 and pursued graduate work at the University of Chicago under the tutelage of Robert Millikan. He became the first student to graduate summa cum laude in physics at the University of Chicago. Shortly before his graduation, Fletcher was approached by President George H. Brimhall about returning to teach at Brigham Young University. Fletcher readily agreed to return to his alma mater as the chairman of the Department of Physics. He taught at Brigham Young University until 1916 when he was offered a research position at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York.

Fletcher took the position with Bell Telephone Laboratories and worked there for the next thirty-three years. It was while with the Bell Laboratories that he gained his reputation as the father of stereophonic sound and did pioneering work on hearing aids. Following his retirement from the Bell Laboratories, Fletcher was appointed professor of physics at Columbia University in New York City (a position that he held for two years).

Harvey Fletcher is second from the left, ca. 1950

In 1952, at the urging of President Ernest L. Wilkinson, Fletcher returned to Brigham Young University as the director of research (1952-1955) of the Engineering Sciences Department. He became the founding dean of the College of Physical and Engineering Sciences in 1954 and served the university well for the next three years.

Individuals interested in studying the life of Harvey Fletcher should also consult the following sources held in the University Archives:

• MSS 1233 Harvey Fletcher papers. This collection includes correspondence, reports, publications, and other materials documenting Fletcher’s life. Access the finding aid for this collection by clicking here.
• UA 909 Faculty Biographical File. This collection contains information on Fletcher’s career at Brigham Young University.
• UA OH 6 Oral history interview with Harvey Fletcher, Sept. 19, 1968. Interview by Hollis Scott with Harvey Fletcher, scientist and teacher, concerning his experiences in Provo, Utah, as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, as a teacher at BYU, and as a bishop and stake president in the New York Stake.
• UA 129 Addresses in honor of Harvey Fletcher. This collection includes typewritten, edited and final drafts of speeches about Fletcher written and given by William L. Woolf and George H. Hansen, a memorandum concerning a speech from Ernest L. Wilkinson to George H. Hansen, a record of Fletcher’s professional experience, and biographical information submitted to Who’s Who in America.
• D 1.023 .P477 2006 Good and Great: A Biography of Harvey Fletcher by Michael Fletcher Perry.
• BX 8670.1 .F634a 1967 Autobiography of Harvey Fletcher by Harvey Fletcher.
• PN 1619.021. F62 1996 The Caroling of Atoms: The Life’s Work of Dr. Harvey Fletcher by Maureen Meyer Fletcher.
• BX 8647 .B76m 1960 Science and religion by Harvey Fletcher.

If you have questions about these collections, please contact the University Archivist at (801) 422-5821 or gordon_daines@byu.edu

Wilmer W. Tanner examines one of the Bean Museum specimens

The University Archives recently acquired the personal papers of Wilmer W. Tanner. Tanner was an undergraduate student at Brigham Young University from 1932 until 1936. After obtaining a graduate degree in zoology, he returned to the university as a faculty member in 1950. He successfully implemented a research program during a time in which the university was focused almost exclusively on undergraduate education. From 1960 to 1967, he edited Herpetologica and succeeded in saving its host organization, the Herpetologists’ League, from financial collapse. Tanner was heavily involved in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, appointed in 1961 (and reappointed in 1966) as secretary-treasurer of the Utah Academy and elected president of the same in 1969 (serving through 1971).

Wilmer Tanner was appointed as the curator of the BYU Life Science Museum in 1972 and quickly began working towards a building for the university’s collections. He worked closely with Monte L. Bean and convinced him to fund the construction of a Life Science Museum building. Bean also decided to donate his extensive trophy collection to the university to augment its life science collection. Tanner oversaw the construction of the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum and was quite pleased with the results. Tanner also worked diligently to create an endowment for the museum. The Bean Museum opened its doors in 1978.

This collection contains extensive correspondence; records documenting the Herpetology League; records of the Herpetologica journal; records highlighting Tanner’s involvement in the American Association for the Advancement of Science; materials documenting various Brigham Young University organizations; records associated with an Atomic Energy Commission project; extensive records and correspondence associated with the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum and its endowment; research notes, charts, and computer printouts; zoology department documents; and various materials of personal interest to Wilmer W. Tanner. The materials date from 1940 to 2009.

The collection is cataloged under the call number MSS 7361 and is titled the Wilmer W. Tanner papers. It is available through the L. Tom Perry Special Collections reference desk (1130 HBLL) in the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. If you would like to know more about this collection, please contact the University Archivist at (801) 422-5821 or gordon_daines@byu.edu.

Some of the newest additions to the Literature collections by female authors include:

Elizabeth Gaskell, The Moorland Cottage (1850).  An early novella by Gaskell, which depicts the life of a young girl, Maggie Browne, whose mother mistreats her but spoils her brother Edward.

Lady Anne Isabella Ritchie, Mrs. Dymond (1885).  This novel, by the daughter of author William Makepeace Thackeray, is a family drama set in England’s Lake District and Paris at the time of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).

Mary Elizabeth Braddon, All Along the River (1893).  Braddon was a bestselling author of sensation fiction.  The heroine of this novel is tempted to leave her husband, who is away on a tour of duty in India.  Her choice, and its consequences, drive the plot.

David Dowling, Chasing the White Whale: The Moby-Dick Marathon; or, What Melville Means Today.  University of Iowa Press, 2010.

Stanton Garner, The Two Intertwined Narratives in Herman Melville’s Billy Budd: A Study of an Author’s Literary Method.  Edwin Mellen Press, 2010.

Birgit Mara Kaiser,  Figures of Simplicity: Sensation and thinking in Kleist and Melville.  State University of New York Press, 2011.

Jamie Lorentzen, Sober Cannibals, Drunken Christians: Melville, Kierkegaard, and Tragic Optimism in Polarized Worlds.  Mercer University Press, 2010.

Geoffrey Sanborn, Whipscars and Tattoos: The Last of the Mohicans, Moby-Dick, and the Maori.  Oxford University Press, 2011.

• Arthur H. Bell, “The child in Wordsworth’s major poetry: a master metaphor and its implications.”  Lexingford Publishing, 2010.

• Jacqueline Labbe, “Writing romanticism: Charlotte Smith and William Wordsworth, 1784-1807.”  Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

• Gregory Leadbetter, “Coleridge and the daemonic imagination.”  Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

• Eric Lindstrom, “Romantic fiat: demystification and enchantment in lyric poetry.”  Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.

• Reeve Parker, “Romantic tragedies: the dark employments of Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Shelley.”  Cambridge University Press, 2011.

These titles may be consulted in Special Collections’ Reading Room during normal operating hours.

“The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit” was acquired with the generous assistance of the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library.

Her papers contain correspondence, publicity materials, notes that led to novels and copies of Band of Sisters and a grammar guide entitled Their, There, They’re. Lyons materials are MSS 7929 and will be available for research soon.

Douglas Gifford, ed.  Addressing the Bard: Twelve Contemporary Poets Respond to Robert Burns.  (2009)

Cecilia Powell. Savage Grandeur and Noblest Thoughts: Discovering the Lake District 1750-1820. (2010)

Natascha Gentz, ed.  Selected Poems by Robert Burns in Chinese Translation. (2010)

Gaura Shankar Narayan.  Real and Imagined Women in British Romanticism. (2010)

Richard Francis, Fruitlands: The Alcott Family and Their Search for Utopia (2010)

Susan Cheever, Louisa May Alcott (2010)

William C. Spengemann, Three American Poets: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Herman Melville (2010)

John E. Seery, ed., A Political Companion to Walt Whitman (2011)

Matt Miller, Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass (2010)

Special Collections contains examples of penny dreadfuls in loose parts as well as bound sets.  They can be found in the library catalog by searching for “penny dreadfuls,” “suspense fiction,” or “street literature” using the “genre/form” search button.

Like Burns, Little wrote in both Scots and English.  One of Little’s poems even amounts to hero-worship, excitedly describing a visit to Burns’ house in 1791.  Burns did subscribe to the book of poetry Little published in 1792, The Poetical Works of Janet Little, the Scotch Milkmaid.  James Boswell (the biographer of Samuel Johnson) was also a subscriber.

L. Tom Perry Special Collections has recently acquired a copy of Little’s Poetical Works – one of only 800 copies printed.  Little’s poetry interests scholars not only because of its association to Robert Burns, but as an example of Scottish vernacular and working-class literature.

Alice Meynell (1847-1922) began her career as a poet.  She was also an essayist and literary critic.  After her marriage, she assisted her husband in editing several periodicals, for which she wrote many of her essays.  In her last years, Meynell took up poetry again.  The Shepherdess (1914) collects some of these later poems.  Special Collections’ copy of this book is a presentation copy from Meynell, dated November 1914.

May Sinclair (1863-1946) began her writing career with the intent to be a poet and philosopher.  However, she quickly made her mark as a novelist, particularly a novelist who wrote insightfully and frankly about women’s experiences.  Sinclair’s interest in feminism and in the field of psychoanalysis contributed to the narratives of her novels.   The Dark Night (1924) is a novel in verse, which was issued in both a limited run of 350 copies and a commercial run.  Special Collections’ copy is from the limited edition and is signed by the author.

Many more periodicals on printing technologies, book arts, and the history of printing can be found in Periodicals and the circulating collection.  To explore some of these titles, search the library catalog for the subject “printing periodicals.”  The library’s History and Art of the Book Subject Guide is also a great resource for finding articles and books about printing and book history.

To find these pamphlets and others like them, search for “comets” in the library catalog or in the “Books and More” tab on Scholarsearch. Just remember to limit your search to Special Collections materials.

Franklin learned the printing trade as an apprentice to his older brother James in Boston, moving to Philadelphia in 1728 (at age 22) to establish his own printing business.  He was so successful that he was able to retire from active business 20 years later, though the press continued to operate under the supervision of Franklin’s business partner David Hall (no relation to the pamphlet’s author).  Hall bought out Franklin’s share of the business in 1766.

Franklin and Hall often reprinted Quaker tracts originally produced in the British Isles at their press;  besides A Mite into the Treasury, the library owns two other Quaker-related titles printed by Franklin and Hall in 1757.  The library also owns an earlier example of Franklin’s work, a travel account by George Whitefield which Franklin issued in 1740.  These items can be found in the library catalog by searching Special Collections’ holdings for works by Benjamin Franklin.

Patrons wishing to consult the facsimile must abide by Special Collections’ reading room policies.  It can be viewed during Special Collections’ hours of operation.

The new facsimile bears the call number Rare Book Collection Folio BS 64 .S3 2010. Scholars may also wish to consult earlier facsimiles of the manuscript: the 1922 Old Testament facsimile (Vault Collection Folio 221.42 Si61L 1922) or the 1862 facsimile issued by the manuscript’s modern discoverer, Constantin von Tischendorf (Vault Collection Folio 220.42 Si61 1862).

This new facsimile joins several other facsimiles of other Dante manuscripts, including copies of manuscripts held by the Vatican Library, the Biblioteca Lolliniana di Belluno, and the Biblioteca Trivulziana Milano.   The facsimiles reproduce manuscripts of the Divine Comedy and some of Dante’s correspondence.  These facsimiles can be found in the library catalog by searching either author: “Dante Alighieri” or genre: “manuscripts, Italian – facsimiles.”  Those facsimiles housed in the Rare Book Collection can be accessed at any time during Special Collections’ regular operating hours; facsimiles housed in the Vault Collection can be accessed Monday through Friday before 5 p.m.

A second Martineau-related acquisition is Organization of Nursing (1865). This book, which describes the founding and operation of the Liverpool Nurses’ Training School, once belonged to Martineau. The school was founded on principles established by Florence Nightingale, who was a personal friend of Martineau’s. Nightingale wrote an introduction describing her ideas about the nursing profession; the book was also dedicated to her.

Parma Psalter: a facsimile of an illuminated Hebrew book of Psalms (with commentary) produced in Northern Italy in the 13th century.  The manuscript is decorated with images of buildings, people, plants, and musical instruments.

Call number: Vault Collection 223.2 P24 1996

Antiphonar von St Peter: a facsimile of a Latin liturgical book produced around 1150 for the use of the Church of St. Peter in Salzburg, Austria.  Though the facsimile is much smaller than the original manuscript, it clearly reproduces the details of the decoration, script, and musical notation in the original.

Call number:  Rare Book Collection BX 1999.85 .A35 A6 2009 T. 1-2

The Stationers’ Company records are the most important existing source on the history of the English book trade.  The microfilm edition reproduces records spanning from 1554 to 1920 and is supplemented by a printed guide by the Company’s archivist.  These records contain a wealth of information about the Company’s activities, including membership and financial records and copyright registers for printed books.  The records provide quantitative data about the output of the London book trade as well as details about the lives and careers of printers, publishers, and other members of the Company.

Researchers can access the microfilm records in Special Collections’ reading room during our normal operating hours.

Special Collections has a few first-hand accounts of the storming of the Bastille, including a political pamphlet entitled La capitale delivrée par elle-même and a celebratory poem, Les nouvelles philippiques, ou, Le Te Deum des françois, après la destruction de la Bastille. These and other primary source materials related to the French Revolution can be found by performing a subject search in the HBLL catalog, using the search string “France History Revolution 1789-1799″.