One thing that librarians and curators love is to help our patrons find the resources they need for their research. That’s why the library subscribes to journals and databases and buys novels and monographs and reference books. These new Special Collections reference books  may not be up for a blind date, but they just may be someone’s perfect research match:

• Walter E. Smith, Charles Dickens: a bibliography of his first American editions, 1836-1870.
• David Brass Rare Books, 2012.John R. Turner, A bibliography of unauthorised American editions of the tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, 1904-1980. Ian Hodgkins & Co., 2012.
• J. R. Abbey, Scenery of Great Britain and Ireland in aquatint and lithography, 1770-1860 (Privately Printed, 1952); and Life in England in aquatint and lithography, 1770-1860: architecture, drawing books, art collections, magazines, navy and army, panoramas, etc. (Privately Printed, 1953).

Rowan Boyson, Wordsworth and the Enlightenment Idea of Pleasure. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Laura Dabundo, The Marriage of Faith: Christianity in Jane Austen and William Wordsworth. Mercer University Press, 2012.

Mary Jacobus, Romantic Things: A Tree, A Rock, A Cloud. University of Chicago Press, 2012.

Adam Potkay, Wordsworth’s Ethics. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012.

•  Queen Victoria’s Journals: scanned versions of the Queen’s surviving journals, from 1832 to 1901.
• The Lily: A Temperance and Feminist Newspaper, 1849-1856: America’s first newspaper for women, edited by Amelia Bloomer.
• Victorian Popular Culture: Scanned books, objects, and documents pertaining to Victorian and Edwardian popular entertainment, including optical entertainment, the theatre and music halls, circuses and sideshows, spiritualism, and magic.

Yona Zeldis McDonough’s Louisa: The Life of Louisa May Alcott is aimed at a juvenile audience.  McDonough narrates Alcott’s life and provides a list of Alcott quotes, a chronology of her life, and a brief list of sources for readers who want to study Alcott’s life further.  She also prints two poems Alcott wrote before the age of twelve.  The biography is illustrated by Bethanne Andersen, a former illustration professor at BYU.

Harriet Reisen’s Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women was published in October 2009.  The book grew out of research for the documentary of the same name, which was  broadcast as part of the PBS American Masters series last week (28 December 2009).  The book chronicles Alcott’s life and career, beginning with her parents’ courtship and marriage and highlighting parallels between Alcott’s fiction and her real-life experiences.

As of August 14th, 2008, Collection Highlights pages have been completed for the Louisa May Alcott and Robert Burns collections.  Look for additions to the Whitman, Melville, and Wordsworth collection pages in coming weeks.

Edward Schoenfeld (1832-1914)

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Edward Schoenfeld autobiography. The item includes a handwritten autobiography (three leaves), genealogy of the Schoenfeld and Springall families (two leaves), and a postcard of Tansberg, Germany, where Edward was born.

Edward Schoenfeld was born in Germany in 1832. He married Ottilie Scharlotte Mieth in 1854. The following year he joined the Mormon Church and migrated to Utah in 1857, settling in Provo. He married Mary Alice Springhall in 1867 and served as mission president to the Swiss and German Mission for the Mormon Church from 1870 to 1872. He also edited the Mormon Church magazine “Stern” while serving as mission president. Schoenfeld died in 1914 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

William B. Preston (1830-1908), husband of Harriet Ann Thatcher Preston.

Harriet was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 1838 and migrated to Utah in 1857 with a wagon train led by her father, Hezekiah Thatcher. In response to a call for Saints to gather to Utah during the Utah War, this company traveled from Pleasant Hill, California, over the Sierra Mountains to Carson Valley. They joined with Saints from that place and elected Perrigrine Sessions to be captain of their joint company the remainder of the way to Utah. William Preston was also part of this company, and the two were married in February 1858. In 1859 the Prestons moved to Logan in Cache Valley to become some of the first settlers in that valley, and William B. Preston was named bishop of Logan. He would later serve in the territorial legislature and in several ecclesiastical positions until being called as Presiding Bishop of the Church in 1884. He was released in 1907 due to health reasons, and would die of pneumonia the following year. Harriet died in 1920 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Walter Lewis (1854-1924), son of William Lewis and Ann Evans, was born in Salt Lake City June 25, 1854. In his early twenties, Lewis embarked on a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served in Wales, where Latter-day Saint missionaries had been preaching since the 1840s. Following his mission, Lewis remained in the Salt Lake City, Utah region until his death on May 13, 1924.

Frank Ecoffey was a Swiss emigrant to the Wyoming Territory in the 19th Century and a personal friend of Chief Red Cloud.

Historic Tenth Ward Meetinghouse (1873) and Chapel (1909)

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Tenth Ward Lumber and Building Association extracts of minutes (MSS SC 1321).  The volume is handwritten extracts of minutes of meetings of the Tenth Ward Lumber and Building Association in Salt Lake City, Utah.  The item is addressed to attorneys Ferguson and Cannon and requests arbitration in a land dispute between the Tenth Ward Lumber and Building Association and the Tenth Ward Cooperative Mercantile Industries.  The item was transcribed by Rodney Hillam, Jr. (1870-    ), Secretary for the Tenth Ward Lumber and Building Association.

The meetinghouse and chapel for the Tenth Ward is still extant today, one of the few 19th century historic LDS meetinghouses still in use.  It is located at 410 South 800 East, Salt Lake City, Utah.

The first five missionaries sponsored by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions were ordained on February 8, 1812, in the Tabernacle Church, in Salem, Massachusetts.
Photo courtesy of The Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA.

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions letter received (MSS SC 2197). The item is a five page unsigned handwritten letter dated October 2, 1833, to Reverend D. Green, secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, from the chairman of a committee in Jacksonville, Illinois, requesting the Board’s aid in outfitting a missionary group to the “Indians West of the Rocky Mountains.” This letter is accompanied by a two page manuscript copy of a petition titled “Incipient measures in relation to the establishment of a mission,” with resolutions passed at a public meeting in Jacksonville on September 2, 1833, and seeks to implement suggestions in the letter.

The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most important of American missionary organizations.

William and Anna McIntire

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: William Patterson McIntire daybook (Vault MSS 806). This volume, dated 1840-1856, mainly consists of notes for business transactions. Also included are notes from sermons of several prominent Church leaders, including Joseph Smith, Orson Hyde, Orson Pratt, Brigham Young, Willard Richards, Oliver Cowdery, Heber C. Kimball, Amasa Lyman, William W. Phelps, Parley P. Pratt, George Albert Smith, Vonson Knight, John Taylor, and Wilford Woodruff. It also includes genealogical information about the McIntire family.

William Patterson McIntire was born in Wheatfield, Indiana County, Pennsylvania in 1813, the son of George and Sarah Davis McIntire. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to learn the trade of a tailor. After his apprenticeship he traveled, working in Kentucky and Missouri, and finally returning to Pennsylvania. In 1833 he married Anna Patterson (1821-1880), the daughter of William and Margaret Patterson. Shortly thereafter he contracted a disease of the lungs from which he suffered for three years. In 1836 he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Elder Erastus Snow. He received a blessing and was healed of the illness of his lungs. Between 1839 and 1840, he served as a missionary for the Church, working with Elder Snow in the Eastern States. In October 1840, McIntire moved with his family to join the main body of Latter-day Saints at Nauvoo, Illinois. There he worked as a tailor. During this time, he made the acquaintance of many prominent Church leaders, including Joseph Smith. In 1849, McIntire crossed the plains and settled in Salt Lake City. He had a family of ten children, two of whom died in infancy. Having received a call to fulfill a colonizing mission, McIntire moved his family to St. George, Utah, and lived there until his death on 7 January 1882.

John F. Kinney (1816-1902)

L. Tom Perry Special Collections is pleased to announce the availability of a new digitized collection: Augustus C. Dodge and George W. Jones letters (MSS 4046).  The collection includes two letters, one from Augustus C. Dodge and the other from George W. Jones, from 1853. The letters both recommend John F. Kinney for the position of Chief Justice over the Utah Territory, so that he might “exercise a wholesome influence over the Mormons”.

George W. Jones (1804-1896)

In 1848, both Dodge and Jones served as Iowa’s first U.S. Senators. Given their proximity to the Saints as they fled Nauvoo for Utah, the Senators would have very been familiar with the Mormons.  Kinney, a prominent American attorney, judge, and Democratic politician from Iowa, would end up being appointed for two terms as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah and one term as the Territory of Utah’s Delegate in the House of Representatives of the 38th Congress.

Augustus C. Dodge (1812-1883)

George W. Jones was a Black Hawk War veteran and served in several political positions in Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa Territories prior to his service in the Senate. After his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Augustus C. Dodge later served as minister to Spain under President Franklin Pierce, and had an unsuccessful run for Governor of Iowa.

Thomas Daniels was born September 29, 1829, in Manchester, Lancashire, England. He was the sixth child of nine children born to James Ephraim and Elizabeth Salthouse Daniels. James was the Methodist parish minister; therefore Thomas was raised in a religious environment. Thomas was nine years old when his father died. His family had been introduced to the Mormon Church shortly before this occurred and after James’ death the entire family were baptized and began planning to immigrate to the United States. The family left England in 1842 on the ship Medford and arrived in New Orleans in the fall, and then traveled up the Mississippi to St Louis, where they stayed the winter.

Thomas worked on the freight boats going up and down the Mississippi River. The other workers gave him the middle name of “English” to differentiate him from another Thomas Daniels who worked on the same boats. Thomas kept that middle name and used it on all his signatures for the rest of his life.

The Daniels family lived in Quincy, Illinois, in 1844, but moved to Nauvoo to help work on the temple. When the saints were driven from Nauvoo, Thomas then moved to Mt. Pisgah, Iowa. He traveled to Utah with the Milo Andrus Company and arrived in September 1850. In December 1850, Thomas and his family moved to Payson, Utah, and they built a homestead three blocks north of the town center. On November 25, 1855, Thomas married Jane Ann Sheffield, and built a two-story adobe house where the couple lived for more than fifty years. Ten children were born to them in this same house. In June 1864, Thomas took a second wife, Annie Olson.

Thomas was very active in the settlement of Payson. He served as ward chorister for forty years, was the city sexton, watermaster, and town councilman. He was also a member of the first dramatic association in the city.  During the winters, Thomas would make brooms from the corn husks raised on the family farm, and then take them to Provo to sell.

From 1869-1871, when his children were small, Thomas served eighteen months in the Eastern and Southern States Mission. He was called at the October 1869 general conference by President Brigham Young along with about 200 other missionaries. His daughter Lucia was born while he was away on his mission. Thomas Jr. and James, his eldest sons, took care of the farm with the help of Jane. Thomas was ordained a high priest in May of 1893, by his brother James Daniels.

Thomas English and Jane Ann celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in November 1905. Before a year had passed, they were both called to the other side. Thomas related how one night shortly before Jane’s death, a vision came to their bed. First, it appeared on his side and then went around the bed to the other side where Jane was sleeping. The angel said, “I want her first, you may wait a short time.” Before a week had gone by, Jane had pneumonia and died quickly on October 18, 1906. On November 6, 1906, at seventy-eight years of age, Thomas answered the death summons as well. They are both buried in the Payson City Cemetery.

You can read more of Thomas English Daniels’ story and the early history of Payson, Utah, by accessing his journal online. The journal housed in L. Tom Perry Special Collections at Brigham Young University dates from 1854-1879, and includes a variety of historical and esoteric information on Daniel’s life. The majority of the journal includes entries from 1866-1879. Entries include an autobiographical sketch of Daniels; comments on weather and farming; events happening in Payson, Utah, and surrounding communities; church events and meetings including general conferences; Daniels’ missionary experiences; and family matters. Daniels attended general conference in the new Salt Lake Tabernacle prior to its completion in 1869. He also makes several entries on the coming of the transcontinental railroad, legislation against polygamy, and other important event in Utah during this period. The journal also includes copies of blessings, including patriarchal blessings, given to Thomas and his family dating from 1854-1875; revelations received by Daniels; songs and poems written by Daniels and others; and newspaper clippings from the era.

James Madison Flake (1859-1946)

Over the past year, patrons of Perry Special Collections have requested a large number of items from our 19th Century Mormon and Western manuscripts collection to be digitized. Most of these are small collections of original journals and letters of early members of the Mormon Church and pioneers of Utah and the American West. Many of these have subsequently been posted online and are accessible to the public. Today begins a series of postings highlighting some of these items that are now available digitally.

James Madison Flake (1859-1946) was born and raised in Beaver, Utah, until the age of 17. He moved to Escalante to farm and lived with Edwin Twitchell for one year. In the spring of 1877 his father, William Jordan Flake, was called to help settle northern Arizona, and James went with them. In his autobiographical sketch (found in volume 2 of his diaries), James states (spelling is as written): “The report from those who had tried to settle that country was verry discourageing, so it was only the respect we had for the servents of God that induced us to break up and leave our heard earned home” (volume 2, pg. 29). In the meantime, James was married to Nancy Jane Hall in Escalante on 15 May, and then sealed in the St. George Temple on 31 August. The family made the trek to Arizona in November and arrived in Sunset in January 1878, where Lot Smith presided over the communities. They attempted to settle in Taylor, but in July 1878 they decided to leave and settle and purchase land from Joseph Stinson in a valley that would later be named Snowflake, after Erastus Snow and James’ father, William Jordan Flake. Over the next ten years James and his family helped establish the community of Snowflake, Arizona, working as a rancher and raising a family of six children.

In September 1888 James was called to serve a mission in England, and he left his wife and six children behind to preach the gospel for two years. Upon his return in 1889, James and Nancy would have three more children. Just one month after the birth of their ninth child in March 1895, Nancy died from an illness. In October 1896, James married a second wife, Martha Amelia Smith, daughter of Jessie Nathaniel and Augusta Smith, in Salt Lake City, Utah. James and Martha would have thirteen children together, giving James a total of 22 children between his two wives.

While in Snowflake, James was active politically and was an advocate for the women’s suffrage movement in Arizona. He also served in several callings in the LDS Church, including superintendent of Sunday School and counselor in the Snowflake Stake presidency. James Madison Flake passed away on 4 February 1946 in Snowflake, Arizona.

View the digitized copies of James Madison Flake diaries (MSS 961) now available on our website!  Volume 1 is primarily a journal kept by Flake while serving a mission to England in from 1888-1889, beginning in May 1889 and ending with a few entries after his mission up to February 1891.  Volume 2 includes an autobiographical sketch and list of important events in Flake’s life until 1929.  These diaries are a great glimpse into the life of a 19th century LDS missionary and Arizona pioneer.

• Travel Writing, Spectacle and World History Contains hundreds of accounts by women of their travels across the globe from the early 19th century to the late 20th century including manuscripts, diaries and correspondence, drawings, guidebooks, sketches, postcards and photographs.
• First World War: Visual Perspectives and Narratives This collection contains primary source material from the Imperial War Museum in London. Main themes include the role of women during the war, the Home Front and international perspectives.
• Popular Culture in Britain and America, 1950-1975 Contains printed and manuscript sources, visual material, ephemera and video clips.
• Foreign Office Files for China Digitized copies of the complete British Foreign Office Files dealing with China, Hong Kong and Taiwan from 1919-1980.
• American History from the Gilder Lehrman Collection Primary sources from the Gilder Lehrman Collection, one of the finest archives available for the study of American History.
• Jewish Life in America A collection of sources from the American Jewish Historical Society which explores the history of Jewish communities in America from 1654 to 1954.

Printed editions of Victoria’s girlhood journals and her Journal of Our Life in the Highlands are available in Special Collections, as are printed editions of Victoria’s letters and the letters of her husband, Albert, the Prince Consort. In addition, Special Collections owns several original letters and drawings by Victoria, as well as books formerly owned or gifted by her.  These items, and more material pertaining to Victoria’s life and reign, can be found by searching the library catalog for “Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, 1819-1901.”

The manuscript can be viewed online here or by searching the library’s Digital Collections.

A multi-year project to digitize the pamphlets is now underway.  Over 500 pamphlets were digitized during year one of the project and are now available online at http://www.lib.byu.edu/dlib/fpp/.  This site includes a fuller description and commentary on the French Political Pamphlets collection and a bibliography of the collection along with browsable images.

In 2014 David Dalton, a former faculty member in the Brigham Young University School of Music, compiled information on all of the individuals who participated in the Lyceum Series from 1921 to 1971. This information was organized into an alphabetical list and a chronological list. These lists are found in UA 5684 David Dalton lists of Lyceum concerts and lectures which can be accessed through the Special Collections reading room (1130 HBLL).

If you would like to know more about the Lyceum Series, please contact the University Archivist at (801) 422-5821 or gordon_daines@byu.edu.

Cecil O. Samuelson, twelfth president of Brigham Young University.

The scrapbook is contained in UA 5702 Cecil O. Samuelson scrapbook. The collection includes materials relating to Cecil O. Samuelson’s years as president of Brigham Young University. It contains newspaper and magazine articles, newsletters, letters, photos, and DVDs, as well as the printed scrapbook made from these materials. The scrapbook is available for research through the L. Tom Perry Special Collections reading room (1130 HBLL) at Brigham Young University.

If you would like to know more about the resources available for studying the history of Brigham Young University, please contact the University Archivist at (801) 422-5821 or gordon_daines@byu.edu.

Wayne B. Hales served as one of the twelve bishops in the first stake on the Brigham Young University campus. He is on the far right in the front row.

The University Archives is pleased to announce the acquisition and availability of the Wayne B. Hales papers (UA 5672). These papers document the life of an influential faculty member at Brigham Young University.

Hales earned a BA from Brigham Young University in 1916. He taught at Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) from 1916 to 1921 and then became president of Snow College in 1921. In 1924 he left Snow College to attend the California Institute of Technology where he received his PhD in 1926. He then taught at Weber College (now Weber State University) from 1926 to 1930. In 1930 he joined the physics department of Brigham Young University. He served as dean of the General College from 1958 to 1964. He also served as chairman of Brigham Young University’s athletic committee from 1952 to 1967. Hales taught the first course in photography at Brigham Young University and was instrumental in establishing the university’s Photo Studio. Hales also served as bishop of one of the first wards in the first Brigham Young University Stake and was the first president of the Brigham Young University 5th Stake.

The Wayne B. Hales papers (UA 5672) contain personal journals, notes, scrapbooks, and photographs of Wayne B. Hales. Collection also contains genealogical records like pedigree charts and journals for Wayne B. Hales’s ancestors. A finding aid for the collection is available here. Additional information about other collections documenting the life of Wayne B. Hales is available here and here.

If you would like to learn more about the Wayne B. Hales papers, please contact the University Archivist at (801) 422-5821 or gordon_daines@byu.edu.

A Joseph C. Nelson photograph of early Brigham Young University mascots Cleo and Tarbo.

The Brigham Young University Archives is pleased to announce the availability of a new digital collection: UA 1007 Joseph C. Nelson photographs of the Brigham Young University. Joseph C. Nelson was a student at Brigham Young University and took photographs documenting campus life in the 1920s. His subjects included the early university mascots (two live cougars named Cleo and Tarbo), the Heber J. Grant Library, lower campus, and various student activities. The images dates from 1920 to 1929.

The easiest way to access the images is through the finding aid which is available through the BYU Finding aids website. Search for “UA 1007″ or “Joseph C. Nelson.” Once you are in the finding aid, click the folder titles in the navigation menu. You can then access the digital images by clicking on the thumbnail image in the search results.

You can also go directly to the finding aid for UA 1007 and scroll through the list of images or search within the collection. Once you have located the image(s) that you are interested in, click on the thumbnail to access the digital file of photographs. Each thumbnail represents the digitized contents of a folder of photographs. Go ahead and see what you can find.

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

This image of members of the Brigham Young University baseball team dates from the 1960s.

The easiest way to access the images is through the finding aid which is available through the BYU Finding aids website. You can search for the sport that you are interested in (for example, “baseball” or “wrestling”) and access the digital images by clicking on the thumbnail image in the search results. This will take you to the digitized contents of the folder of photographs of that particular building.

You can also go directly to the finding aid for UA 1029 and scroll through the list of images or search within the collection. Once you have located the image(s) that you are interested in, click on the thumbnail to access the digital file of photographs. Each thumbnail represents the digitized contents of a folder of photographs. Go ahead and see what you can find.

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

Ex Luminus was the school yearbook for the L.D.S. Hospital School of Nursing.

The University Archives is pleased to announce that selected elements of the Latter-Day Saints Hospital Nurses Alumni Association records (UA 1020) are now available online. These materials may be accessed at http://lib.byu.edu/digital/scmisc/ by selecting “Nursing Education” or they can be accessed through the finding aid available at UA 1020 finding aid. The following series have digitized content available:

• Series II Latter-Day Saints Hospital Nurses Alumni Association by-laws
• Series IV Latter-Day Saints Hospital Nurses Alumni Association newsletters
• Series V School of Nursing programs
• Series VI School of Nursing yearbooks
• Series VII School of Nursing histories

Once you have located a digital object that interests you, click on the thumbnail to access the digital file. Each thumbnail represents the digitized contents of a folder of materials. Go ahead and see what you can find.

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

Benjamin Cluff, Jr.

The University Archives recently digitized two collections of Cluff’s diaries. They are:

• MSS 1667 Benjamin Cluff diaries. Collection contains four diaries and their respective transcripts covering the period from 1881-1909 and detailing Cluff’s time as a student at Brigham Young Academy and the University of Michigan, as well as his subsequent appointment as President of the Academy. Also describes his activities and experiences as a plantation owner in Tabasco, Mexico. The digital copies of the diaries may be accessed through the finding aid available here. To view the digital copy of the diary, select the diary you are interested in from the navigation menu on the right and then click on the thumbnail image to access the whole diary.
• MSS 3076 Benjamin Cluff diary. Collection contains one diary written by Cluff documenting his the activities as he led a small group from Brigham Young Academy through Panama and into Columbia. Though Cluff states a desire to search for the Book of Mormon city of Zarahemla while on the expedition, much of the diary is devoted to describing travel preparations, countryside traveled through, and plantation owners Cluff meets during the trip. The group traveled by steamboat, by mule, or on foot for much of the trip and encountered many difficulties that impeded their progress, which are documented in the diary. Cluff’s diary also includes details on expenditures, a temperature log, and information Cluff learned about the local rivers, forests, and wildlife. Cluff also makes reference to ideal locations for business or colonization. The digital copy of the diary may be accessed through the finding aid available here. Click on the thumbnail image to access the whole diary.

If you have any questions about the materials available for studying Benjamin Cluff, Jr. and his impact on Brigham Young University, please contact the University Archivist at 801-422-5821 or gordon_daines@byu.edu.

Early cougar mascots named Cleo and Tarbo, 1920s.

The easiest way to access the images is through the finding aid which is available through the BYU Finding aids website. You can search for the subject that you are interested in (for example, “Cosmo” or “cheerleaders”) and access the digital images by clicking on the thumbnail image in the search results. This will take you to the digitized contents of the folder of photographs of that particular building.

You can also go directly to the finding aid for UA 869 and scroll through the list of images or search within the collection. Once you have located the image(s) that you are interested in, click on the thumbnail to access the digital file of photographs. Each thumbnail represents the digitized contents of a folder of photographs. Go ahead and see what you can find.

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

The Karl G. Maeser Memorial Building shortly after its completion in 1911

Originally designed as a classroom building, it has served thousands of students. The Maeser Memorial Building has also served the university as an administration building, housed devotionals and faculty meetings in its assembly hall, was the home of the College of Commerce and Business Administration, and housed several academic departments. It also briefly served as the home of the Student Army Training Corps in 1918. Today it is the home of Brigham Young University’ Honors Program.

The Maeser Memorial Building is one of the statelier buildings on campus. The interior is finished in oak with marble on the main stairways and the exterior is constructed of oolitic limestone. The building cost over $130,000 to build and nearly half of that was donated by the Jesse Knight Family. The rest of funds were raised by the Alumni Association. Over 1600 students, faculty, and alumni contributed to making the building a reality.

The University Archives recently opened a small exhibit containing materials that help to tell the story of the construction of the Karl G. Maeser Memorial Building. Come on down to Special Collections (1130 HBLL) and enjoy the exhibit.

Series 2 contains DVD recordings of sporting activities at Brigham Young University provided by Intercollegiate Athletics from 1930 to 2009. The recordings were made from the original film reels which are contained in Series 1. Information about the contents of Series 2 can be accessed here.

Series 3 contains DVD recordings of original films which do not include any sport related material. Information about the contents of Series 3 can be accessed here.

The use copy DVDs may be accessed and used through the L. Tom Perry Special Collections reading room (1130 HBLL) of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. If you have any questions about UA 5426 Intercollegiate Athletic films, please contact the University Archivist at (801) 422-5821 or gordon_daines@byu.edu.