Category Archives: On Jon’s Desk

On Jon’s Desk: Celebrating National Aviation Day with a Look at the Evolution of Flight

17 Friday Aug 2018

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Evolution of Flight - cover

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Some of the myths of yesterday are the facts of today. The advance and evolution of flight is fully appreciated by the world at large. The long process of its growth can be vividly traced by reading the early legends and following them through the various stages of development. The early investigators, the daring balloonists, the ingenious gliders – all have contributed to this wonderful achievement.”

~ Nolie Mumey, from the Foreword of Evolution of Flight

Evolution of Flight - title page

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evolution of Flight: Stories based on legendary and historical data

Nolie Mumey

Denver: The Kendrick Bellamy Co., 1931

TL515 M8 1931

Evolution of Flight - GreeceIt is easy to take for granted how far we’ve come in the field of aviation. Given the money and the appropriate political documentation, anyone can get to the other side of the world within a twenty-four-hour period of time. This fact is really quite mind boggling when one takes a moment to ponder it. I recently took a trip which involved flying in an airplane. While preparing for the upcoming flight I was more concerned with making sure I didn’t have any liquids in my carry-on bag when I got to the security check point than I was about the fact that I was about to sit inside a large piece of metal as it flew through the air at hundreds of miles per hour thirty thousand feet above the ground. I doubt I am alone in this warped sense of concern when it comes to travel via commercial airline. Flying has become so common place it is interesting to consider that we have only had the technology to travel in this way for a little over a century. For thousands of years before we finally succeeded in achieving sustained flight people had dreamed of doing so.

Evolution of Flight - EnglandEach year, on August 19th, the United States of America celebrates National Aviation Day. Created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1939, the day is a commemoration of the development of modern aviation. The 19th of August was selected for its observance because Orville Wright was born on this day in 1871. Orville and his older brother Wilbur are credited with achieving the first controlled, sustained flight of a powered, heavier-than-air aircraft. At 10:35 a.m. on December 17, 1903, four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville lifted off into a 27 mile per hour head wind and flew for 12 seconds at an altitude of 10 feet, flying at 6.8 miles per hour and covering 120 feet of ground. Both brothers flew twice that day, Wilbur making the fourth and final flight of the day at about noon, during which he sustained flight for 59 seconds and flew 852 feet.

Evolution of Flight - Wright BrothersAfter experimenting with gliders in the 1890s (based upon research done by Leonardo da Vinci, Octave Chanute, George Cayley, Otto Lilienthal, Samuel Langley, and others), the Wright brothers constructed their powered Wright Flyer I using spruce wood and Pride of the West muslin. They designed and carved their own propellers and, when they couldn’t find anyone able to build an engine to their weight specifications, turned to their shop machinist and mechanic Charlie Taylor – who in only six weeks engineered and built a lightweight power plant for the Wright brothers. To minimize weight, Taylor cast the engine block from aluminum. The 152-pound engine exceeded the power output requirement of 8 horsepower by delivering 12. Using heavy duty chains that resembled those used for bicycles, the engine drove the dual eight feet long propellers. The Flyer had a wingspan of 40.3 feet and weighed 605 pounds.

Evolution of Flight - Jean-Marie Le BrisTo put Taylor’s engine into perspective, the self-propelled lawn mowers most of us have in our sheds today average between 5 and 7 horsepower and those of the riding variant average between 15 and 20. Building a frame of spruce wood, covering it with muslin, and placing on it the equivalent of a lawn mower engine hooked via chains to a couple of propellers seems fairly straight forward and something an engineering-minded and mechanically-inclined high school student might do during a summer break to pass the time. We, who are accustomed to seeing pictures of the SR-71, Concorde, and F-35 Lightning II, may easily take the Wrights’ achievement for granted, thinking of it as primitive. To think such, however, would show a lack of understanding for what was achieved in 1903. While Taylor’s six-week turnaround in designing and building a lightweight engine is impressive, the true accomplishment that brought the Wright brothers their fame was the development of three-axis control because it was this system that enabled a pilot Evolution of Flight - W Millerto steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. It was what had eluded all other aeronautical investigators up until the turn of the 20th century.

Although on National Aviation Day we celebrate the accomplishments of the Wright brothers, we should remember that there were many people who contributed to the pursuit of flight over a span of roughly two thousand years. Written by *Nolie Mumey, Evolution of Flight: Stories based on legendary and historical data takes the reader, as the title makes clear, through the history of thousands of years in which we developed the ability to fly thousands of miles in a few hours. Granted, most of the significant progress was made in the last two centuries prior to powered flight – but we shouldn’t discount even the earliest efforts because it shows the power of dreams and where those dreams can take us.

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

*Nolie Mumey (1891 – 1984) graduated from the University of Arkansas Medical School in 1916 and became a surgeon. He went on to earn a Master of Science degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA and MA from the University of Denver. A twentieth-century Renaissance man, Mumey was also a poet, silversmith, aviator, carpenter, woodcarver, artist, and inventor. He had an extensive collection of books and artifacts of the American West and its history. He wrote numerous books on both medical and Western history.

Evolution of Flight - Leonardo da Vinci

 

 

 

 

 

Evolution of Flight - Lilienthal

 

 

 

 

Evolution of Flight - Octave Chanute

 

On Jon’s Desk: A Look at Pioneer Heritage through Missouri Mormon Redress Documents

24 Tuesday Jul 2018

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Missouri Executive Order Number 44:

Headquarters of the Militia,

City of Jefferson, Oct. 27, 1838.

Gen. John B. Clark:

Sir: Since the order of this morning to you, directing you to cause four hundred mounted men to be raised within your division, I have received by Amos Reese, Esq., of Ray county, and Wiley C. Williams, Esq., one of my aids [sic], information of the most appalling character, which entirely changes the face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten your operation with all possible speed. The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace – their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may consider necessary. I have just issued orders to Maj. Gen. Willock, of Marion county, to raise five hundred men, and to march them to the northern part of Daviess, and there unite with Gen. Doniphan, of Clay, who has been ordered with five hundred men to proceed to the same point for the purpose of intercepting the retreat of the Mormons to the north. They have been directed to communicate with you by express, you can also communicate with them if you find it necessary. Instead therefore of proceeding as at first directed to reinstate the citizens of Daviess in their homes, you will proceed immediately to Richmond and then operate against the Mormons. Brig. Gen. Parks of Ray, has been ordered to have four hundred of his brigade in readiness to join you at Richmond. The whole force will be placed under your command.

I am very respectfully,

yr obt st [your obedient servant],

W. Boggs,

Commander-in-Chief

Missouri Mormon Redress Documents

1838 – 1841

When, as a young man in his teens, Joseph Smith, Jr. announced he had received a vision in which he met God the Father and Jesus Christ, it did not sit well with many of those who heard the news. From that time forward Smith experienced strong opposition to his religious beliefs and endeavors. He persisted, and at the age of 24 (in 1830) he founded the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. From its humble origins in western New York this church grew, never quite able to escape opposition and its consequential persecution due to the nature of the Church’s origin and its differences in doctrine from other Christian denominations.

Most people in Utah are familiar with the pioneer heritage members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (often referred to as Mormons or LDS) share and their propensity for celebration of Pioneer Day (July 24th) because of it. A celebration of the day Brigham Young (Joseph Smith, Jr.’s successor and second president of the LDS church) reached the Salt Lake valley via horse-drawn wagon in 1847, Pioneer Day is a reminder to those belonging to the LDS church of the rewards which result from enduring persecution through faith. Emerging from Emigration Canyon and stopping on top of a hill, the enfeebled Brigham Young, sick with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, viewed the valley from the back of the wagon he was riding in and proclaimed, “It is enough. It is the right place. Drive on.” Young’s statement referred to a vision the leader had previously experienced about the place where the Latter-day Saints would settle and “make the desert blossom like a rose,” and where they would build their State of Deseret. As the wagon train descended into the valley the words “this is the place” spread throughout it, the joyous hope rising that, after almost two decades of conflict with neighbors wherever they went, they would finally find a reprieve from religious intolerance – the original American dream, one might argue.

In 1831, amidst rising opposition and persecution in New York, Joseph Smith and his followers relocated to Kirtland, Ohio. Soon thereafter, some having gone even farther west to proselytize (although unsuccessfully) amongst Native American Indian tribes, a group of Smith’s followers established an outpost in Jackson County, Missouri. Smith planned to move the Church’s headquarters there, but before he could other Missouri settlers (not of the LDS faith) expelled the Mormons from the county. The Missouri Mormons relocated to the north in Davies and Caldwell Counties and the Kirtland Mormons enjoyed some prosperity, until in 1838 when a financial scandal involving the failure of the Kirtland Safety Society led to the relocation of a large number of the Mormons living in Kirtland to Far West, Missouri. This increase in Mormon population led to additional tension, developing into a series of violent conflicts with their neighbors (sometimes called the 1838 Mormon War). Believing the Mormons to be in open rebellion, Governor Lilburn W. Boggs (sixth Governor of Missouri from 1836 to 1840) issued Missouri Executive Order Number 44, commonly called the “Extermination Order” because in it he wrote, “The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace…” The Missouri militia followed Governor Boggs’ order, and the Mormons were brutally expelled from the state, losing the property they had legally purchased without any recompense.

Having been driven from Missouri, the Mormons relocated to Illinois, where they converted swamp land along the banks of the Mississippi River (which no one else wanted at the time) into a thriving town. They named it Nauvoo. With a strong militia (the Nauvoo Legion, commanded by Joseph Smith) and the fastest growing population in the state due to Mormon proselytization in Europe, done primarily in England at the time, Nauvoo became a major political concern for those in the state not belonging to the LDS faith. Once again conflict arose. In June of 1844, Joseph and his brother Hyrum, along with a few other LDS leaders, were held for treason in the jail at Carthage, Illinois. On June 27th a group of armed men stormed the jail and murdered Joseph and Hyrum Smith. For the next two years a succession struggle occurred within the LDS membership while tension continued to build between the Mormons and their neighbors. After a more negotiated settlement than had occurred in Missouri took place, Brigham Young led (over a frozen Mississippi River) those who would follow him west, first to Winter Quarters, Nebraska and then to the Great Salt Lake valley.

Redress for the events that occurred in Missouri in 1838 was not made until 1976 when Missouri Governor Christopher S. “Kit” Bond rescinded the “Extermination Order” and offered an official apology on behalf of the state of Missouri. Speaking at an event in 2010 he said, “”We cannot change history, but we certainly ought to be able to learn from it and where possible acknowledge past mistakes. That was what motivated me to rescind the extermination order in 1976.” While the recension of the law that made it legal to kill Mormons in Missouri until 1976 was undoubtedly a move in the right direction, and the sentiment that learning from past mistakes is a good one, it is also good that there is a day to contemplate the events that led to the building of a strength of character encompassing a group of people who never gave up on the original American dream. Perhaps knowing that they had finally arrived at a place where they could follow it was all the redress they really needed. It must have felt amazing to be in that dusty wagon train descending into the Great Salt Lake valley on July 24, 1847 and hearing the words, “this is the place.”

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Jon’s Desk: Forkel’s Allgemeine Litteratur der Musik crosses paths with Harry Potter

29 Tuesday May 2018

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“I knew it! I knew it! ”
“Are we allowed to speak yet?” said Ron grumpily. Hermione ignored him.
“Nicolas Flamel,” she whispered dramatically, “is the only known maker of the Philosopher’s Stone!”
This didn’t have quite the effect she’d expected.
“The what?” said Harry and Ron.
“Oh, honestly, don’t you two read? Look — read that, there.”

― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

Allgemeine Litteratur der Musik; oder, Anleitung zur kenntniss musikalischer bu̇cher, welche von den ȧltesten bis auf die neusten zeiten…

Johann Nikolaus Forkel (1749 – 1818)

Leipzig: Schwickert, 1792

First edition

ML105 F72

It seems to me that a person either loves the Harry Potter series or hates it. Some people even refuse to read it despite the pleas of HP lovers close to them. As we fanatical fans know because our hearts tell us it is so, the abstainers would love it too if they would just finally read it. But for those of us who aren’t able to convince the last hold outs of our generation, at least we can experience the magic of sharing J. K. Rowling’s world with the children we are raising as they become old enough to join the Harry Potter fan club. It is in this light, that of needing to be the expert of all things Harry Potter in order to guide my nine year old son as he reads the series this summer, that I contemplate a recent important discovery.

I remember when I first entered the world of Harry Potter. It was the summer after my first year of college and I was looking for my summer fiction fix, an annual college ritual created by restricting myself from fiction during the school year in an effort to achieve better grades. In May 2003, as classes were ending, the release of the fifth book in the Harry Potter series (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) was eagerly anticipated the next month (June). I had been hearing about the series for a couple of years and it was finally time to take the plunge. And I dove deep. I read the first four books in the series at a pace of about a book a week and was ready for the fifth installment of the series when it was released in June. Needless to say I, like so many millions of others, was hooked on HP from then on. I have to admit to having read the series in its entirety several times in the years since I joined the club.

And strangely, at no point in any of those readings did it occur to me that a certain important character in the first book (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone) is an actual historical figure. Every time I read about Professor Dumbledore’s association with Nicolas Flamel I assumed J. K. Rowling had created Flamel as a fictitious character. It wasn’t until this week and a chance encounter with Allgemeine Litteratur der Musik while conducting research on a separate topic that I discovered how all these years I had been missing something.

But let me back up and provide a little context. The plot of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone [spoiler alert] follows Harry Potter, a young wizard who discovers his magical heritage on his eleventh birthday, when he receives a letter of acceptance to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry makes close friends and a few enemies during his first year at the school. With the help of his friends Ron and Hermione, Harry faces an attempted comeback by the dark wizard Lord Voldemort, who killed Harry’s parents, but failed to kill Harry when he was just 15 months old.

During his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry the successful enterprise of preventing his nemesis’ return hinges on Hermione’s deductive reasoning in deducing what Professor Quirrell is after, and Professor Dumbledore is hiding, within the school. This artifact, the Philosopher’s Stone, is the creation of the alchemist Nicolas Flamel – an associate of Professor Dumbledore. And this is where Rowling’s fiction intersects with historical fact.

Nicolas Flamel (1340 – 1418) was a successful French scribe and manuscript seller. After his death, Flamel developed a reputation as an alchemist. Lore has it that he discovered the Philosopher’s Stone and achieved immortality. These legendary accounts first appeared in the 17th century. I had no idea that Nicolas Flamel was an actual person until I found him, completely by coincidence, in Forkel’s Allgemeine Litteratur der Musik (1792).

Johann Nikolaus Forkel was a German musician, musicologist, and music theorist. The son of a cobbler, he received early musical training (especially in keyboard playing) from Johann Heinrich Schulthesius, who was the local Kantor. In other aspects of his music education he was self-taught, especially in regards to theory. As a teenager he served as a singer in Lüneburg. He studied law for two years at the University of Göttingen, and then remained associated with the University for more than fifty years. There he held varied positions, including instructor of music theory, organist, keyboard teacher, and eventually director of all music at the university. Forkel is often regarded as the founder of Historical Musicology because through his vision the study of music history and theory became an academic discipline with rigorous standards of scholarship. He was an enthusiastic admirer of Johann Sebastian Bach, whose music he did much to popularize. He also wrote the first biography of Bach (in 1802), which is of particular value today due to his decision to correspond directly with Bach’s sons Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach (thereby obtaining valuable information that would otherwise have been lost). Forkel’s Allgemeine Litteratur der Musik (Dictionary of Musical Literature) is a survey of musical texts arranged by author’s last name in alphabetical order, with dictionary-style entries.

On page eleven is an entry for Nicolas Flamel. Loosely translated from the German, in part it reads, “A French poet, painter, philosopher, and mathematician in Paris at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th centuries, born in Pontoise … He was especially known for alchemy…” Forkel’s description includes the texts written by Flamel (easily distinguished in this work because the Latin titles were printed in a Roman typeface rather than the Gothic) which relate in some way to music. He provides references to important passages in regards to music within Flamel’s texts as well.

In addition to being able to share this new insight with my nine year old son as he reads Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, this experience has led me to conclude two things: there is more depth to the Harry Potter series than some people want to give it credit for and more importantly, the rare books collections are an incredible source of knowledge and insight. Irreplaceable is how I would describe them, actually. It wasn’t through the internet that I found out that a character in one of my favorite books is actually a historical figure. Rather, like Hermione with the information that allowed Harry to defeat Lord Voldemort and stop his return, I found it in an old book in the library.

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: Contemplating Passover with A Book of Songs and Poems from the Old Testament and the Apocrypha, published by Ashendene Press

30 Friday Mar 2018

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“Then on that day David delivered first this Psalm to thanke the Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren: give thankes unto the Lord, call upon his name, Make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him. Talke you of all his wonderous works…”

~ The Psalm of Thanksgiving of David

A Book of Songs and Poems from the Old Testament and the Apocrypha

Chelsea, England: Ashendene Press, 1904

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Passover is an eight day Judeo festival celebrated in the spring, from the 15th through the 22nd of the Hebrew month of Nissan (March 30th – April 7th, 2018). Commemorating the emancipation of the Israelites from slavery in ancient Egypt, Passover is observed by avoiding leaven and is highlighted by the Seder meals that include four cups of wine, eating matzah and bitter herbs, and retelling the story of the Exodus. In Hebrew it is known as Pesach (which means “to pass over”) because God passed over Jewish homes when killing the Egyptian firstborn on the very first Passover eve. Passover is divided into two parts: The first two days and last two days (the latter commemorating the splitting of the Red Sea) are full-fledged holidays on which candles are lit at night and kiddush and sumptuous holiday meals are enjoyed. Those observing the holiday don’t go to work, drive, write, or switch on or off electric devices. The middle four days are called Chol Hamoed, semi-festive “intermediate days,” when most forms of work are permitted.

To commemorate the unleavened bread that the Israelites ate when they left Egypt, chametz (leaven, or food mixed with leaven) is not eaten (or even retained in the observant’s possession) from midday of the day before Passover until the conclusion of the holiday. Instead of chametz, matzah (flat unleavened bread) is eaten. It is a mitzvah (religious duty or commandment) to partake of matzah on the two Seder nights. The highlight of Passover is the Seder, observed on each of the first two nights of the holiday. The Seder is a fifteen-step, family-oriented and ritualistic meal. In addition to the partaking of the four cups of wine, matzah, and bitter herbs, another focal point of the Seder includes the recitation of the Haggadah, a liturgy that describes in detail the story of the Exodus from Egypt. The Haggadah is the fulfillment of the biblical obligation to recount the story of the Exodus on the night of Passover.

While not part of Passover observance per se, it may be nice to take a look at this beautiful collection of Old Testament songs and poems, printed by the Ashendene Press in 1904. Operated in Chelsea (an area in southwest London), England from 1895 to 1915 and then again from 1920 – 1935, the Ashendene Press was a small, private press founded by Charles Harold St. John Hornby (1867 – 1946). Naturally, St John Hornby was aided in the running of the press by his wife Cicely (daughter of Charles Barclay, a director of the National Provincial Bank, and Charlotte Cassandra Cherry) whom he married on 19 January 1898. In 1900, Hornby met Emery Walker and Sydney Cockerell (then William Morris’ secretary at the Kelmscott Press). Together, they encouraged and instructed Hornby and helped in devising two typefaces for his own use, Subiaco and Ptolemy.

Most Ashendene editions used one of these two typefaces, which were specially cast for the Press. Subiaco was based on a fifteenth-century Italian type cast by Sweynheim and Pannartz in Subiaco, Italy. The Ptolemy typeface was originally created by the Ulm based printer Lienhart Holle in 1482 for the work Cosmographia, a cartographic work by Claudius Ptolemaeus. Hornby, Walker, and Cockerel wanted to recreate a typeface with a character equal parts Gothic and Roman (“Gotico-Antiqua”) and they re-created the Ptolemy typeface for that reason.

Some Ashendene books were illustrated with wood-engravings, but the majority were printed solely using type. The wood engraver William Harcourt Hooper worked for Ashendene Press starting in 1896, after working at Kelmscott Press from 1891 to that time (during which he had contributed to works such as the Kelmscott Chaucer). It is reported that Hornby called Hooper “almost the last of the old school of wood-engravers and a very fine craftsman.”

A Book of Songs and Poems from the Old Testament and the Apocrypha is a wonderfully produced, sixty-two page book printed in an edition of 175 copies (150 on paper and 25 on vellum). The text is printed in black and red, with initial capitals in blue by Graily Hewitt, on Batchelor’s “Hammer and Anvil” paper. This octavo book (19 x 13 cm or 7½ x 5¼ inches) contains eleven selections. Eight of these from the Old Testament and three from the Apocrypha, which are biblical or related writings not forming part of the accepted canon of Scripture. The Biblical Apocrypha is a set of texts included in the Latin Vulgate and Septuagint but not in the Hebrew Bible. Of the eight selections from the Old Testament, one is from Exodus, two from Deuteronomy, one from Judges, three from Samuel (one Samuel I and two Samuel II), and one from Chronicles I.

Rare Books copy contains unattached, but laid in, bookplate of “Ken Tomkinson, High Habberley House, Kidderminster Worcs [Worcestershire], England.” While we don’t know much about Ken Tomkinson, author of Kidderminster Since 1800 (1975) and Characters of Kidderminster (1977), we can at least surmise that he possessed excellent taste in books since he owned this one.

A Book of Songs and Poems from the Old Testament and the Apocrypha is a fantastic addition to the University of Utah’s amazing Rare Books collections – and somewhat miraculously, perhaps, it came just in time for Passover.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: Putting Earth First! by observing National Skip the Straw Day, with contemplation on Edward Abbey

23 Friday Feb 2018

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“Like Pallas Athena springing fully armed from the brow of Zeus, EARTH FIRST enters the wilderness fray…

‘What!?’ you say. ‘Another wilderness group? There are more wilderness groups than plague fleas on a New Mexico prairie dog! I already belong to nine of the damn things. Why another one? Why EARTH FIRST?’

Because we’re different.”

~ Earth First!, Volume 1, Number 1 (Samhain, Nov. 1, 1980)

Title: Earth First!

Author: EARTH FIRST! Organization

Editors: Dave Foreman and Howie Wolke

Published: Rio Rancho, NM: Earth First! (Vol. 1, No. 1 – Nov. 1, 1980)

Call Number: xGE195 E17

Happy National Skip the Straw Day!

Before you groan, “Not another silly national day,” please allow me to take just a moment and explain what Skip the Straw Day is all about. In the 1880s, inventor and philanthropist Marvin Chester Stone (1842 – 1899) created the first “modern” drinking straw. Drinking straws have been in use since the Sumerian civilization, the oldest known example being a golden tube found in a tomb dated to approximately 3000 BCE. It was believed to have been used to avoid fermentation sediments while drinking beer. In South America a sieve-like device called a bombilla, used for drinking mate tea, has been in use for hundreds of years. During the 19th century, natural rye grass straws (hence the name) came into common use in the United States, but these added a “grassy” flavor to the drink. For that reason Stone invented the “modern” straw, first experimenting with rolled paper and then paraffin-wax coated Manila paper. In the 1960s plastic straws began to be manufactured. It is estimated that today over 500 million plastic drinking straws are used daily in the United States. That’s a lot of plastic. Inevitably, some of those plastic drinking straws end up in the environment.

Plastics are especially harmful to oceanic ecosystems, where due to currents they tend to collect into what are called “gyres.” According to the National Skip a Straw Day webpage, “straws and other plastics cause harm to marine life in many ways.  Birds, fish, and other sea life consume plastics accidentally or when they mistake it for food. Plastics don’t biodegrade.  They break down into smaller and finer, microscopic pieces. When plastics break down, they produce bisphenol A (BPA) which interferes with reproductive systems in marine life. It also produces styrene monomer which is a suspected carcinogen.” A group of activists called The Coral Keepers, comprised of students at Whitehall Middle School in Whitehall, Michigan (along with their advisor, Susan Tate) “founded National Skip the Straw Day in 2017 to encourage Americans to give up the straw habit and help spread awareness about the damage caused by disposable plastics.” The Registrar at National Day Calendar declared the day to be observed annually on the fourth Friday in February. While it may not be an official national holiday, it is a great way to bring awareness to the harm plastics are causing in the environment.

“What does this have to do with books?” you may ask. A fair question, which I thank you for asking. Environmental activist groups have been around for a long time. One of the most important things these groups do is to bring awareness to the problem. One way in which these organizations accomplish this is through publication, commonly via newsletter. An excellent example of one such environmental advocacy group that emerged in the southwest United States in 1980 is Earth First! The founders (Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, Bart Koehler, and Ron Kezar) were inspired by – yes, you guessed it – books. The founders of this specific organization were inspired by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962), Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethic” (the final essay in the 1949 A Sand County Almanac), and Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975). The Earth First! organization is known for its radical activism, characterized by public stunts. Edward Abbey, revered by those who were part of the movement, spoke often at early organization gatherings.

Edward Paul Abbey (January 29, 1927 – March 14, 1989) was an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues, criticism of public land policies, and anarchist political views. In addition to The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), he wrote The Brave Cowboy (1956) and Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness (1968). Abbey was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, graduating from high school there in 1945. Eight months before his 18th birthday, when he would become eligible for the draft into the United States military, Abbey decided to explore the American southwest. He traveled by foot, bus, hitchhiking, and freight train hopping. During this trip he fell in love with the desert country of the Four Corners region. In the military Abbey had applied for a clerk typist position but instead served two years as a military police officer in Italy. Abbey was promoted in the military twice, but then demoted twice due to his propensity for opposing authority, before being honorably discharged as a private. His experience with the military left him with a distrust for large institutions and regulations. This influenced his writing for the duration of his career and strengthened his anarchist beliefs.

When he returned from Italy to the United States at the end of his military service, Abbey took advantage of the G.I. Bill and attended the University of New Mexico. He received a B.A. in philosophy and English in 1951 and a master’s degree in philosophy in 1956. While an undergraduate, Abbey was the editor of a student newspaper in which he published an article titled “Some Implications of Anarchy.” A cover quotation of the article stated, “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” University officials seized all of the copies of the issue and removed Abbey from the editorship of the paper. After graduating, Abbey traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he spent a year at Edinburgh University as a Fulbright scholar.

In 1956 and 1957, Abbey worked as a seasonal ranger for the United States National Park Service at Arches National Monument (now a national park), near the town of Moab, Utah. In the 1960s Abbey worked as a seasonal park ranger at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, on the border of Arizona and Mexico. Desert Solitaire, Abbey’s fourth book and first non-fiction work, was published in February 1968. This year marks the 50th anniversary of its publication.

Desert Solitaire is regarded as one of the finest nature narratives in American literature, and has been compared to Thoreau’s Walden. In it, he recounts his stay in the canyonlands of southeastern Utah from 1956-1957. Abbey vividly describes the physical landscapes of Southern Utah and delights in his isolation as a back country park ranger, recounting adventures in the nearby canyon country and mountains. He also attacks what he terms the “industrial tourism” and resulting development in the national parks (“national parking lots”), rails against the Glen Canyon Dam, and comments on various other subjects.

So in observance of National Skip the Straw Day let’s all sip our beverages from the rim of the cup and perhaps take a look at the Earth First! newsletter and The Monkey Wrench Gang or Desert Solitaire. I believe that Edward Abbey and the founders of Earth First would be happy to know that today, thanks to The Coral Keepers, we are adding a few less plastic straws to the landfills and ocean gyres.

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk – The Golden Cockerel Press Conquers an Anonymous Chronicle of the First Crusade

31 Wednesday Jan 2018

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Title: The First Crusade: The Deeds of the Franks and other Jerusalemites

Author: Anonymous

Publisher: London: The Golden Cockerel Press, 1945

Call Number: D161.1 G42 1945

The story of the Crusades is one of conquest. Although participants saw themselves as pilgrims, the endeavor quickly became an enterprise of establishing a new kingdom (that of Jerusalem). Setting out on the journey of reading the Crusade chronicles is often like starting a bibliographic pilgrimage that will invariably become something else. These accounts can become a collection of narratives needing to be conquered. And that is just what one group of talented book makers did with one account of the First Crusade recorded by an anonymous participant: the Golden Cockerel Press took the chronicle and mastered it — completely.

Operating between 1920 and 1961, the Golden Cockerel Press was initially a privately owned press (and then later a publishing house) that specialized in producing fine press editions of works completely by hand. The press printed on handmade paper using hand-set type, and often illustrated the works using hand-engraved woodblocks. The Golden Cockerel Press was founded by Harold (Hal) Midgley Taylor (1893-1925) in 1920, but was set up as a cooperative with three other partners in addition to Taylor: Bee Blackburn, Pran Pyper, and Ethelwynne (Gay) Stewart McDowall. After Taylor was no longer able to supervise the press due to suffering from tuberculosis it was sold to Robert Gibbings in 1924. Gibbings published 71 titles at the press, with the size of a run normally between 250 and 750 copies. The press enjoyed a brief period of strong success before once again succumbing to faltering markets and in 1931 it was taken over by Christopher Sandford, Owen Rutter, and Francis J. Newbery. It was at this point that the press transitioned from a privately owned press to a publishing house. 120 works were published during the Sandford era. In 1959 Sandford, for whom the financial pressures of keeping the press going had become too much, sold the publishing business to Thomas Yoseloff, an American publisher and at the time director of University of Pennsylvania Press. Yoseloff completed the publication of two titles in 1960 that had been previously commissioned by Sandford, and then the following year published two more titles before continuation of the business proved impractical. By the end of 1961 Yoseloff ceased operations, as the resources and fine bookcraft skills necessary for production of Golden Cockerel titles became too difficult and costly to obtain.

The illustrations in some Golden Cockerel titles, although tame by modern standards, were considered risqué for the time and necessitated the press taking precautionary measures against possible prosecutions for obscenity or provocation, such as disguising the names of translators and illustrators. The woodblock engravings for The First Crusade: The Deeds of the Franks and other Jerusalemites were done by Clifford Webb (14 February 1895 – 29 July 1972), who was an English artist, illustrator, and author. He primarily illustrated books for children, which makes his engravings for The First Crusade that much more interesting by comparison. The scenes captured by Webb in this work are striking, both artistically and from a standpoint of subject matter.

The anonymous chronicle Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum, the translation of which appears in the Golden Cockerel work The First Crusade, was written by a participant of the events for which it is named. Who wrote this account and why would The Golden Cockerel Press want to publish it? Let’s take a little closer look at it, shall we?

Shortly after the conclusion of the First Crusade, in 1101 CE, Ekkehard (d. 1126), later abbot of Aura, went to Jerusalem on pilgrimage and saw there what he described as “a little book,” in which an account of the three years preceding the taking of Jerusalem was given. Several other accounts refer to this “little book,” which was often described as rustic and written in an unpolished style. This account is accepted as the earliest chronicle of the First Crusade to be completed following the events of 1099, which included the capture of Jerusalem by the western Christians (i.e. pilgrims). It came to be known as the Gesta Francorum et aliorum Hierosolimitanorum (in translation, The Deeds of the Franks and the other Pilgrims to Jerusalem), and is now commonly referred to as the Gesta.

This chronicle is comprised of an account which begins with the Council of Clermont in November 1095 and ends with the Battle of Ascalon in August 1099. The account consists of ten books, of which the first nine are believed to have been written before the anonymous author left Antioch in November 1098 and the tenth at Jerusalem shortly after the Battle of Ascalon (certainly before the beginning of 1101). This work became an important source for other chronicles which followed. The Gesta also influenced, either in its original form or through those who used it as a resource in their own work, most of the chronicles written during the twelfth century. Its influence on the historical writings of the time has cemented it as an important source alongside even the more “polished” of its contemporary peers.

The anonymous author of the Gesta had little interest in autobiography and little is known about him beyond what can be discovered indirectly through the context of his account. Contextual evidence suggests that he was a vassal, most likely a mid-level knight, of Bohemond and that he came from southern Italy. This is made clear due to his description of the beginning of the Crusade and the position from which he participated in the battles up to June 1098. He identified a number of undistinguished men in Bohemond’s army while confusing the names and titles of important and powerful northern leaders.

Perhaps the most telling evidence of the author’s identity, however, is that throughout the first nine books he refers to Bohemond as “dominus” (in the feudal sense of “overlord”) and usually attached a laudatory epitaph such as “sapiens,” “prudens,” or “bellipotens” when describing him. This suggests that he either held Bohemond in the highest esteem or expected him to read, or at least hear of, the chronicle. The socio-political restraints of a vassal would have necessitated this treatment to the author’s lord. Additionally, the author fought in the ranks of Bohemond’s knights at the Battle of Dorylaeum and the Lake of Antioch, and he was one of the band of hand-picked men Bohemond took with him to enter Antioch by night in order to obtain control of the city through stealth. In reference to Pope Urban II’s journey to Clermont he described the destination as “across the mountains,” showing that he considered Italy to be his home. This evidence indicates that the author was a member of a Norman family that had followed Tancred de Hauteville into southern Italy in the eleventh century. Bohemond’s father was Robert Guiscard, who was one of Tancred’s sons. It seems likely that Bohemond’s immediate followers were of Norman descent despite many of them having been born in Italy.

It is also likely that the anonymous author of the Gesta was a layman as opposed to clergy, who usually authored chronicles. That he was a knight is obvious from the account. Less obvious is how he became educated enough to write the account, even with it being written in a simple, unadorned style. It was possible, although uncommon, for knights to be educated (milites literati), usually in cases where younger sons who had been trained for service in the church were recalled to a military career upon the death of an older brother so long as they had not progressed beyond minor orders. This may be the case for the anonymous author of the Gesta. While it is primarily a tale of heroic deeds, it does have the feeling of being written by a devout man familiar with passages in the Vulgate. When Bohemond decided to stay at and rule Antioch, the anonymous author chose to abandon his lord, possibly giving up the prospects of enfeoffment in the Principality of Antioch, to continue on to Jerusalem and fulfill his pilgrim’s vow. If true, this would lend credibility to the hypothesis of a devout layman who had become literate through church training.

The Gesta is comprised of a fascinating account of the events of the First Crusade, delightfully presented in this edition – an edition of the highest quality printing – done by the The Golden Cockerel press. Clifford Webb’s masterfully engraved illustrations put the reader right in the middle of the action. One can imagine a Golden Cockerel there, in the middle of it all, as the Crusaders stormed the walls of Jerusalem in July of 1099. If only Ekkehard had been so lucky as to have found such an edition rather than the “little book” he came across in Jerusalem in 1101.

~Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: Vapor Trails: 1949, 191st Fighter Squadron

11 Saturday Nov 2017

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“Dedicated to the officers and men of the Utah Air National Guard whose past accomplishments, sincere endeavor, and esprit de corps have been an inspiration to all air units and with whom it has been our privilege to serve.”

Title: Vapor Trails: 1949, 191st Fighter Squadron

Author: Utah Air National Guard

Published: Salt Lake City: Mercury Publishing Co., 1949

Call Number: xUA489 V37 1949


 

 

 

 

 

“It is with the feeling of pride that I take this opportunity to commend all members of the 191st Fighter Squadron and its allied units for the outstanding records achieved in the past three years. Your ratings of ‘Superior’ and the results of your Operational Readiness Tests, indicate that you are one of the outstanding air units of the United States. I salute you as a Utah National Guard unit, that fully merits the confidence of the people of our state.”

– Brigadier General J. Wallace West, The Adjutant General (Commanding Officer) of the Utah National Guard, page five of Vapor trails: 1949, 191st Fighter Squadron

“I am proud, as you yourselves are proud, to have been a part of this organization which has made such an enviable record in its short history. I congratulate all of you, whether your job is on the ground or in the air, on your contribution to the work that has made the Utah Air National Guard the outstanding air unit it is today.”

– Lieutenant Colonel Alma G. Winn, Commanding Officer, 191st Fighter Squadron (1949)

“Organized as a tactical unit prepared to implement the regular Air Force in time of emergency, the 191st Fighter Squadron, after several months of extensive planning and preparation, was federally recognized November 18th, 1946. In its infancy, the squadron was commanded by Lt. Col. Jack J. Oberhansly who was later succeeded by the unit’s present commander, Lt. Col. Alma G. Winn. In its brief but colorful history, the squadron has grown from a complement of fifty-six officers and enlisted men to its present strength of three hundred and fifty – over ninety-seven percent of its authorized personnel. Based at Salt Lake’s Municipal Airport, the squadron began recruiting men from all communities in a widespread vicinity.”

“The first aircraft arrived on the base the 23rd of December, 1946. In the ensuing five months additional aircraft were received and by the 4th of June, 1947 the unit had all its planes and both Utility Flight and the Fighter Squadron were in full operation. The squadron now had twenty-six F-51s, two C-47s, four B-26s, and four T-6s. With the advent of the aircraft, recognition of the Air Guard by the public became evident and a marked increase in morale and interest was indicated by all members of the organization. The roar of the planes overhead became commonplace to the citizenry of surrounding towns and cities as the squadron’s fighters streaked across the skys in successive flights. Pilots, crew chiefs, armorers, radio men – needed technicians and rated airmen were attached from the ranks of the ex-servicemen. Untrained recruits were enlisted and classified in “on-the-job-training” status, practical and classroom instruction was initiated and the training program gathered momentum.”

“During the nationwide “Operation 88, 888,” the unit exemplified itself in procurement of personnel. Detachment “C,” 244th Air Service Group, won national acclaim in recruiting and received a bronze plague [sic] from the National Guard Bureau for its efforts.”

“Publicity was received by the organization in its beginning. ‘Utah Air National Guard Unit to Hold Exhibit,’ ‘Air Guard Group to Conduct Enlistment Drive,’ ‘Guard Squadron Aids in Feeding and Rescue of Livestock,’ and numerous other articles began to appear in local and national publications. Such activities and accomplishments soon established the 191st Fighter Squadron as one of the outstanding units of the Air National Guard.”

“The first building used by the Air Guard was the old Army hangar at the Salt Lake Municipal Airport. This structure was shared with an Airline and the arrangement proved very unsatisfactory due to the influx of men and equipment which could not be properly housed. Although this condition appeared to reduce efficient training and operations, the organization continued to progress. A new area, formerly part of the Salt Lake Army Air Base and located at the northern end of the airport, was allotted to the unit. A modern hangar and adjoining shop and supply buildings were constructed. Barracks, classrooms, mess hall and supply warehouses, long vacated, were renovated and prepared for use. The new area flourished and prospered until all needed facilities were available for squadron use.”

“The squadron has participated in three summer encampments since its activation. In 1947 the units were ordered to their first fifteen day tour of duty at their home station. Summer Camp in 1948 again found the squadron operating from their home base for a fifteen day period. During the summer of 1949, all units were flown to Victorville Air Force Base, California, for joint operations with units from California and Nevada under command of the 61st Fighter Wing. These summer camps were the “proving grounds” of the training and experience received during months of Monday night drill periods.”

“As the pages of this book are turned, the story of the squadron, its accomplishments and achievements, its work and its pleasures, its heartaches and its laughter, will be found. Reminisce these three years past, Air Guard, and resolve to maintain and fulfill the responsibilities which are yours to the citizens of the United States.”

– from “The Organization – Its History” (pages ten and eleven) of Vapor Trails: 1949, 191st Fighter Squadron

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

On Jon’s Desk: The Wonders of the Invisible World – New England, a Battle Ground of Demons and Lawyers

31 Tuesday Oct 2017

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“It has been a most usual thing for the bewitched Persons, at the same time the Spectres representing the Witches, troubled them, to be visited with Apparitions of Ghosts, pretending to have been Murdered by the Witches then represented. And sometimes the Confessions of the Witches afterwards acknowledged those very Murders, which these Apparitions charged upon them; altho’ they had never heard what Informations had been given by the Sufferers.”

– From chapter four (“The Tryal of Elizabeth How”) of The Wonders of the Invisible World

Title: The Wonders of the Invisible World, being an account of the tryals of several witches lately executed in New-England

Author: Cotton Mather (1663 – 1728)

Published: London: J. R. Smith, 1862

Call Number: BF1575 M38 1862

In the late seventeenth century a battle waged across New England. No, it wasn’t the French and Indian War. That one wouldn’t occur for another half century. This was a battle which became manifest in church sermons and in the court room. It wasn’t fought for land. Rather, souls were at stake. Demons were on the rampage, deploying witches in their evil attacks on righteous, Christian New Englanders. The Devil had mobilized and his captains, the demons, gave marching orders to these witches, who did their best to cause the righteous to suffer. Or so some claimed.

One such individual was Cotton Mather, a socially and politically influential New England Puritan minister, prolific author and pamphleteer. Mather was a graduate of Harvard College and participated in the scientific development of hybridization and disease prevention through inoculation, but it is not for these contributions he is most commonly remembered. Rather, his legacy rests on his support of the Salem witch trials. He became a proponent for the controversial topic of spectral evidence, which is a form of evidence based upon dreams and visions. The verdicts of the Salem witch trials rested greatly on spectral evidence. Mather argued that it was appropriate to admit spectral evidence into legal proceedings, but cautioned that convictions should not be based on spectral evidence alone as it was possible for the Devil to take the shape of an innocent person.

Mather published The Wonders of the Invisible World in 1693, as a defense for the part he played during the trials. In this work he presents himself as an objective historian, drawing on court documents to offer a record of the events. Through this work the reader can easily see that Mather believed that witchcraft existed and was the product of evil magical power granted by the devil to those who swore an oath to him. Mather believed witches were the devil’s tools, used to undermine the Puritan colony in Massachusetts. He fought back against the Devil’s legions as best he could, primarily with sermons and his quill. With his help many alleged followers of Satan became casualties of the then court system.

The accounts contained in this book are super spooky and if a Harvard-trained Puritan minister supporting the admissibility of spectral evidence in court doesn’t scare you I don’t know what will. I just hope you don’t run into any demons, witches, or spectres this Halloween. Or, if you become one yourself, that spectral evidence isn’t laid out against you. Instead, come to Special Collections at the J. Willard Marriott Library and let your socks be scared off while reading Mather’s accounts of the Salem witch trials.

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

 

On Jon’s Desk: Pictures of an Inland Sea – Every Book a Treasure

29 Friday Sep 2017

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“Across the distance there comes a change. The horizon is melted away; the mountains are all blurred. Distant chains appear to part and to become peaked islands. The sky seems water; the water, sky. Soon substance and shadow are indistinguishable. In plainer words, it is the beginning of a noonday mirage.”

– From Chapter III “Sea Horizons,” Pictures of an Inland Sea, page 39

Title page of Portraits of an Inland SeaTitle: Pictures of an Inland Sea

Author: Alfred Lambourne

Published: Boston: Samuel E. Cassion, 1895

Call Number: xPS3523 A44 P53 1895

First edition

An entire month has escaped me. It seems to have fallen into a crevasse. It was mid-August and then suddenly here we are at the end of September. I looked at the calendar today and realized it has been a month since I wrote and published the last On Jon’s Desk post. Subsequently, having no idea whatsoever as to what I should write my next post on, I began scanning my desk to see what books I may find. That is when I found an amazing book. It just goes to show that every book is a treasure, waiting to be found. This book was on my desk because I needed to follow up on a question posed by someone who came to Special Collections to read it and was then waiting to be returned to its place on the shelf. Little did I know that this amazing book, only a few feet away from me this whole time, is such a gem. I had no previous knowledge of the author or this work. I am very happy that I now do. Here is what I found.

Portrait of Alfred LambourneAlfred Lambourne was born in Chieveley, Berkshire (on the River Lambourn), England, on the second of February, 1850. Alfred manifested artistic talent while young and his parents (William and Martha) encouraged him in the pursuit of this interest. During the 1860s, Alfred’s family converted to Mormonism and subsequently immigrated to the United States, residing in St. Louis, Missouri for a time before completing its journey to Utah. Alfred arrived in Salt Lake City at the age of sixteen (having kept a sketch book of scenery along the way from Missouri to Utah) and upon arriving in Salt Lake City began painting set scenery for the Salt Lake Theatre. In 1871, he accompanied Brigham Young (then President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and former Governor of Utah Territory) to Zion Canyon, where he made the first known sketches of that area. During his mid-life, Alfred traveled not only throughout the West but also across the continental United States painting many natural settings and geologic features he visited. In his later life he concentrated on writing, sometimes illustrating his books. He wrote fourteen works in total before he died in Salt Lake City on the sixth of June, 1926.

Page twenty-three from Portraits of an Inland SeaWhen most of us think of the Great Salt Lake, we think of a stinky place with lots of bugs. Alfred was enthralled by the Great Salt Lake, referring to the body of water as an “inland sea.” It was a source of adventure and joy for him and his preferred place for solitude. It also acted as a source of artistic inspiration for him. His relationship with the lake spanned decades and resulted in a body of beautiful works, of which this book, Pictures of an Inland Sea, is one. He sketched and painted the lake from multiple vantage points. At the same time, his paintings focused on his favorite aspects of the lake: travel by boat, soaring birds, and of course the ever-changing water, sky, and atmospheric phenomena of the lake.

List of sketches in Portraits of an Inland SeaPictures of an Inland Sea is a transcendentalist work that provides both factual information on the lake from a nineteenth century vantage point and images of divinity sketched out for us by Alfred both visually and textually. This book is a treasure because through it we are drawn into a world of natural phenomenon that he could see and with this work interprets for us. So next time you catch an unsatisfactory whiff of the Great Salt Lake and fail to appreciate its fascinating existence, just look to Alfred and his sketches and you may find it just a little easier to appreciate our inland sea.

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator

 

Twilight of Marshes Sketch from Portraits of an Inland Sea

 

 

 

On Jon’s Desk: The “S” Book, 1928 – Fast Times at LDS College

29 Tuesday Aug 2017

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“Ever beautiful and stately, the L.D.S. campus appears as remote and unconquerable as a medieval fortress to the unsophisticated young entrant. He stares with a mixture of awe and emotion at the green, quiet lawn and the old, grand buildings; he is sure that he will never feel at ease in those halls so full of dignity and learning. But when the years draw to a close and the student is graduating, he stands and gazes with a new emotion at the buildings that are now dear to him. The feeling of awe has vanished and in its place there is deep and sincere love for that campus with its weather-beaten buildings and its student-trodden halls.”

– From the “About the Campus” in The “S” Book, 1928

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: The “S” Book, 1928

Published by the Students of the Latter-day Saints College at Salt Lake City, Utah

Printed by the Paragon Printing Company, Salt Lake City, Utah

Engravings by The Salt Lake Engraving Company

Editor in Chief: Richard Bennett

Business Manager: Jack Jones

It’s that time of year again. The time that many people dread, but some few, perhaps, may secretly look forward to. The start of a new school year. Each August institutions of learning reopen, and many return to their halls, some kicking and screaming the entire way there (and not necessarily all of them students). I would hazard a bet that it was no different ninety years ago for those attending the Latter-day Saints College in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Despite the once-felt pain of starting those many school years, most of us bought the so called “yearbooks,” which we find ourselves, against our better judgement, pulling from a box or off a dusty shelf to peruse every few years. They sure bring back memories, don’t they? Whether they bring back good memories or bad, they do provide a record of the past. As terrible as some of those school pictures are or as silly as some of the end-of-year signings can be, yearbooks often become very interesting historical records. Take, for example, a 1928 yearbook (The “S” Book) from LDS College bought by Grace Louise Cannon. This book has some interesting aspects which should make us happy Grace didn’t do what most of us are tempted to do when looking at our own yearbooks, namely, commit them to the landfill.

LDS College, sometimes called LDS High School, was a secondary school located in Salt Lake City, Utah operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The school was closely associated with Latter-day Saints’ University, the last vestiges of which are now LDS Business College. Both trace their beginnings to the Salt Lake Stake Academy, which started in 1886. The LDS High School name was adopted in 1927. In 1931, LDS High School was closed, leaving about 1,000 students to attend public high schools, most notably the newly built South High, which opened in the fall of the same year. The closure was a late example of a process of closing most LDS run secondary schools in Utah.

Grace was a senior the year (1928) this “S” Book was compiled and she had some very interesting classmates: Gordon B. Hinckley and Rulon T. Jeffs. Gordon B. Hinckley went on to become the 15th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, serving in that position from March 1995 until his death in January 2008. Rulon T. Jeffs, on the other hand, became President of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), a Mormon fundamentalist organization based in Colorado City, Arizona, from 1986 until his death in 2002. The FLDS Church is one of the largest Mormon fundamentalist denominations and one of the largest organizations in the United States whose members practice polygamy. It emerged in the early 20th century when its founding members left The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The split occurred largely because of the LDS Church’s suspension of the practice of polygamy and its decision to excommunicate its members who chose to continue the practice.

Who would have guessed that the concurrent leaders (1995 – 2002) of these two opposing organizations were once high school classmates?

After attending LDS College (High School) with Hinckley and Jeffs, Grace went on to study at the University of Utah. She graduated in 1935 and was married to J. Quayle Ward in September of that year by David O. McKay, then second counselor in the First Presidency of the LDS Church. She became a school teacher in Granite School District (where she taught for sixteen years), raised five children, and died in July of 1997 at the age of 86. She undoubtedly achieved many great accomplishments. As arbitrary as it may sound, I would rank her saving this 1928 “S” Book as one of them.

So as tempting as it may be to commit your yearbooks to the landfill, think of Grace and how her yearbook has helped to make us a little more aware of obscure historical fact, and just hold onto them. Who knows what they’ll tell us in ninety years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Contributed by Jon Bingham, Rare Books Curator