http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf2779n5rr No online items Guide to the Dale Lowell Morgan papers, 1877-1971 Processed by Lauren L. Lassleben, Project Archivist Rosemary Evetts, Assistant Archivist; machine-readable finding aid created by Xiuzhi Zhou The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu © 1998 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Note Arts and Humanities --Religion --ChristianityHistory --History, United States (excluding California) --History, UtahHistory --History, California --GeneralSocial Sciences --Business and Economics Guide to the Dale Lowell Morgan BANC MSS 71/161 c 1 papers, 1877-1971 Guide to the Dale Lowell Morgan Papers, 1877-1971 Collection number: BANC MSS 71/161 c The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California Contact Information: The Bancroft Library. University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, California, 94720-6000 Phone: (510) 642-6481 Fax: (510) 642-7589 Email: [email protected] URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu Processed by: Lauren L. Lassleben, Project Archivist Rosemary Evetts, Assistant Archivist Date Completed: 1992 Encoded by: Xiuzhi Zhou © 1998 The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Collection Summary Collection Title: Dale Lowell Morgan Papers, Date (inclusive): 1877-1971 Collection Number: BANC MSS 71/161 c Creator: Morgan, Dale Lowell, 1914-1971 Extent: Number of microfilm reels: 80 (16mm, positives)Originals: 76 boxes, 27 cartons, 1 rollLinear feet: 65.45 Repository: The Bancroft Library. Berkeley, California 94720-6000 Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog. Languages Represented: English Access Collection is open. Use microfilm for research. Originals used only by permission of the Head of the Public Services of The Bancroft Library. A copy of the microfilm is available for use at The Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Publication Rights Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Guide to the Dale Lowell Morgan BANC MSS 71/161 c 2 papers, 1877-1971 Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. Preferred Citation [Identification of item], Dale Lowell Morgan papers, BANC MSS 71/161 c, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Title: Norman M. Littell Papers, Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/233 c Title: Papers relating to Healing v. Jones (Hopi-Navajo Land Claims Case), Identifier/Call Number: BANC MSS 71/294 p Photographs have been transferred to Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library. Microfilm collected by Morgan has been transferred to the Microforms Division of The Bancroft Library. Maps have been transferred to the Map Collection of The Bancroft Library. Acquisition Information The Dale L. Morgan Papers were donated to The Bancroft Library on March 30, 1971. Funding The processing and filming of this collection has been a cooperative project of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley and The Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, with additional funding provided by the George S. and Delores Dori Eccles Foundation, and private donors: Mrs. John Cahill, Mrs. Jerry Cole, Mrs. Harold Cookson, Mrs. St. George Holden, and Mr. George Smith. Note Index is available on hard copy finding aid only. 1914 - Dale Lowell Morgan born in Salt Lake City on December 14, first child of James Lowell and Emily May Holmes Morgan. 1920 - James Lowell Morgan died at age 25, leaving three sons and one daughter. 1929 - Dale Morgan contracted meningitis, which left him totally deaf, and cost him a year of school. 1933 - Graduated from West High School in Salt Lake City. 1937 - Graduated from the University of Utah, with a B.A. degree in art. 1937-1938 Studied commercial art and tried without success to find a public relations or advertising position in Salt Lake City and San Francisco. 1938 - Employed as a researcher and writer for the Utah Historical Records Survey, a Works Progress Administration-sponsored program, in Ogden, and then in Salt Lake City. He also worked part-time for the Utah Writers Project. 1940 - Named state supervisor of the UHRS. Wrote sections of, and edited, Utah: A Guide to the State (1941). 1940-1941 Won both Salt Lake City and Utah state chess championships. 1942 - Moved to Washington, D. C., to work as an information specialist, Department of Information, Office of Price Administration, and to pursue historical research at the National Archives and the Library of Congress. 1943 - The Humboldt, Highroad of the West, Morgan's first major book, published by Farrar and Rinehart. 1945 - Started a series of book reviews of Western history and fiction, for the Saturday Review of Literature . 1947 - Publication of Morgan's most important completed work on Mormon history, Great Salt Lake, by Bobbs-Merrill Company. 1948 - Awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, which gave him financial support to travel extensively in the eastern, midwestern, and western United States, doing research for a planned three-volume history of the Mormons. 1948-1953 Continued to work on Mormon history, and wrote freelance articles, first in Salt Lake City, and then in Washington, D. C. He was unsuccessful in his search for federal employment as an historian. 1953 - Hired by Dr. George P. Hammond, director of The Bancroft Library, as a researcher for Norman Littell, attorney for the Navajo Tribe's land claim case; the work continued for nearly a decade. 1954 - Invited by Dr. Hammond to join The Bancroft Library staff, to prepare a guide to it's manuscript collections. He remained at The Bancroft Library for the rest of his career. 1960 - Elected a Fellow of the Utah State Historical Society. 1961 - Honored by the California Historical Society with the Henry Raup Wagner Memorial Award, for The Overland Diary of James A. Pritchard (1959) and California As I Saw It (1960). 1962 - Given the California Historical Society's Fellowship Award. Guide to the Dale Lowell Morgan BANC MSS 71/161 c 3 papers, 1877-1971 1963 - Publication of A Guide to the Manuscript Collections of The Bancroft Library, Volume 1, edited by Morgan and Hammond. 1964 - Recognized by the University of Utah with its Distinguished Alumnus Award. 1969 - Dale Morgan's mother, Emily May Holmes Morgan, died in Salt Lake City. 1969 - Received an Award of Merit from the American Association for State and Local History, "for outstanding scholarship in the field of Western Americana, and for the authorship of dozens of books and articles of exceptional quality." 1970 - Awarded a second Guggenheim Fellowship, for research on the North American fur trade. 1971 - Dale L. Morgan died of cancer, March 30, in Accokeek, Maryland, at the home of his long-time friend, Louise North. Scope and Content The Dale L. Morgan Papers are extraordinarily rich in source materials for historians of the Trans-Mississippi West during the 19th century. Major topics include the Mormon Church and related sects, mountain men, mapping and exploration of the Rocky Mountain and western United States, fur trade, overland migration, and the California Gold Rush. Morgan was a member of The Bancroft Library staff, working as an editor, writer, and researcher, from 1954 until his untimely death in 1971. The papers were then deposited in The Library, and remained there, in an unprocessed and highly disorganized state, until April 1988. The processed collection now measures 65.45 linear feet, housed in 76 boxes and 27 cartons. Duplicate and non-record items were discarded. Printed materials have been separated and transferred to the Acquisitions Division of The Bancroft Library for cataloging. Photographs and maps have been transferred to the Pictorial and Map Collections, respectively. Microfilm collected by Morgan has been transferred to the Microforms Division. Resulting in part from his handicap, Dale Morgan had a love of and gift for the written word. The first series, Conversations, ca. 1941-1970, demonstrates his difficulty in communicating face to face with friends, scholars, and library personnel. Correspondence provided a wonderful outlet. The sheer number and length of the letters he wrote and received are astounding. These form the core of the collection and are divided into four series: Outgoing Correspondence, 1937-1971 (Series 2); Incoming Correspondence, 1924-1971 (Series 3); Letters Routed to Dale L. Morgan for Information, 1935-1970 (Series 4); and Family Correspondence, 1903-1970 (Series 5). One thousand, four hundred and fifty people, more than three quarters of the writers, wrote fewer than 10 letters, but 16 correspondents each wrote more than 100 letters, accounting for 35% of the total incoming volume. One correspondent alone is responsible for 7.5% of the incoming volume. Incoming correspondence has the largest volume at 48% of the whole, outgoing constitutes 39%, and family correspondence 7%. The remaining 6% are letters which are neither written by, nor written to, Morgan. Including the letters written to his family, Morgan's own correspondence is approximately 43% of the total amount. Although Morgan thought of his letters as personal and professional in content, they fall into three categories: history and historical research; his personal historical activities; and his "other personal" activities. He was an exhaustive and meticulous researcher. Many of his history/historical research letters functioned as his interior monologue and the incoming responses furthered the discussion. In fact, because of his deafness, much of the historical process is now documented in detail; had he been able to hear and speak, much of this detail certainly may have been lost.