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1833, English, Map, Unpublished edition: Robert S. Ellison Collection Ellison, Robert Spurrier

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Robert S. Ellison Collection
 
Bookmark: http://trove.nla.gov.au/version/438627
Physical Description
  • 10 boxes
  • Letters, Histories, Photographic prints, Maps, Pamphlets, Newspapers, Drafts (Documents), Notes
Published
  • L. Tom Perry Special Collections
  • 1833-1951
Language
  • English

Edition details

Title
  • Robert S. Ellison Collection
Creator
  • Ellison, Robert Spurrier
Published
  • L. Tom Perry Special Collections
  • 1833-1951
Physical Description
  • 10 boxes
  • Letters, Histories, Photographic prints, Maps, Pamphlets, Newspapers, Drafts (Documents), Notes
Subjects
Notes
  • Ellison (1875-1947) was a prominent Colorado lawyer, businessman, politician, historian, and author. ; Correspondence, genealogical notes, diaries, business records, drafts of writings, speeches, and collected research and reference materials including manuscripts letters, legal documents, maps photographs, and newspaper clippings. The materials pertain primarily to the history and settlement of the American West, the American Indian Wars and American Indian culture, and the preservation of western historical landmarks. ; Robert Spurrier Ellison was born November 6, 1875 in Rush County, Indiana, a son of Franklin Ellison and Mary A. Krammes; A.B., University of Indiana; married Vida F. Gregory on August 29, 1907. Admitted to the Colorado bar in 1903 and began practice at Colorado Springs; atty. Cripple Creek Railroads, 1906-16; atty. Midwest Refining Co., 1916-19, vice-pres., 1919-1930; pres. Wyoming Trust Co., Casper Wyoming, 1926-30; pres. Stanolind Pipe Line Co. and Stanolind Crude Oil Purchasing Co., 1930-1938, Stanolind Oil Purchasing Co., 1938-1940, retired November 5, 1940; pres. Bank of Manitou January 1944-1951. Member Colorado House of Representatives, 1911-1912. Pres. Casper Chamber of Commerce, 1924-25; pres. Casper Council Boy Scouts of America, 1926-27, member executive committee Region 8, Boy Scouts of America, 1927-30, member Tulsa County Council, 1931-47 (pres. 1933-40. 2d vice-pres. Pike's Peak Council, 1944, and member Region A. Committee) also member National Council. Trustee of town of Manitou Springs, Colorado, 1942 and 1943; elected mayor 1944 (2 yrs.). Appointed director Colorado Historical Society, April 1942, 2d vice president December 1943-1947. Founder Historical Landmarks Commission of Wyoming. Honorary life member Oklahoma-Kansas division of Midcontinent Oil and Gas Association; member American Institute Mining and Metall. Engineers, Sigma Nu. Republican. Mason (32nd degree, K.T., Shriner). Club: Rowfant (Cleveland, Ohio). Author of monographs on Independence Rock, Old Fort Bridger, Red Buttes Indian Fight, William H. Jackson, and others. Given the title of Wyo-La-Shar by Pawnee Indian Supreme Council for work in the preservation of Indian history, 1932. His home was located in Manitou Springs, Colorado. He died on August 16, 1947. [See Who's Who in America, vol. 26, 1950-1951, page 801.]For more details about Ellison's career with Midwest Refining Company, see the typescript "History of Midwest Refining Company," in Box 2, Folder 12, beginning on page 15. For background information about Ellison's extensive library and collection of Western Americana, and for descriptive highlights of his collection in the Lilly Library of Indiana University, see the following article by Oscar Winther. A photocopy of the article is filed in Box 1, Folder 1. ; The Robert Spurrier Ellison Collection (1827-1947) preserved in the BYU Library consists of biographical information and mementos, genealogical notes and correspondence pertaining to Ellison's ancestral lines, general correspondence, a personal journal account of the 1893 World's Fair held at Chicago, Illinois, business records pertaining to Ellison's career with the Midwest Refining Company and other firms, drafts of writings--mainly articles--and speeches, but including a (partial?) draft of Ellison's book Fort Bridger: A Brief History, and collected research and reference materials such as manuscripts, letters, legal documents, maps, photographs, originals and typescripts of journals, and newspaper clippings. The materials pertain primarily to the history and settlement of the American West, the American Indian Wars and American Indian culture, and the preservation of western historical landmarks. The General Correspondence is an extensive and rich file containing 846 items--mostly incoming letters (and an occasional memo, postcard or telegram) with a broad cross section of correspondents and subjects. The file documents primarily Ellison's collecting and research activities and his interaction with other devotees of the American West--bookmen, scholars, amateur historians, journalists, and surviving western pioneers such as William Henry Jackson. Some items passed through several hands, illustrating and documenting the methods and practices of the network of buffs and scholars searching for information on the Indian Wars and the American West, and preserving and publishing their findings. One such was General William Carey Brown whose multitudinous exchanges with Ellison and others are amply evidenced in this collection, in the Brown papers at the University of Colorado, and in the Walter Mason Camp Papers--see the Camp Register (Mss 57). A second example is General William H. Bisbee. He wrote to A. B. Ostrander on March 12, 1928. Ostrander sent the letter on to Robert Bruce on March 17 with a typed note added. Either Bruce or Ostrander subsequently sent the letter and the note to Ellison in whose files it remained. It is abundantly clear from an examination of this correspondence file that many people around the country recognized Ellison's collecting expertise and regularly sent him material. Occasional attachments/​enclosures were left attached to their cover letter if they seemed to be an inherent part of the letter, were very brief or fragmentary in nature or were dependent upon the letter for their meaning to be clear to the user or simply were too insignificant to warrant standing alone in a separate file. In those instances where a brief transmittal note or incidental cover letter with no additional substantive content was attached to an enclosure of significance, the two items were filed together in the Research and Reference File. In a rare instance, an enclosure of significance was left filed with its cover letter in the correspondence file. For example, on August 2, 1933, William Carey Brown sent three pages of notes to Ellison containing information on several Indian fights. Since filing the notes in a single spot (other than under Brown's name) in the Research and Reference File was not possible and the information was too complex for the limited system of cross referencing used in the container list, the notes were left with the cover letter. To be sure of finding all of the information on a given subject such as Platte Bridge or Red Buttes, the user must search all the correspondence. A name index to the correspondence is included in the container list immediately following the location information on the correspondence. It is as complete as was practical given limited staff resources and the illegibility of some signatures.The Writings file contains typescripts, typescript carbons, holographs, newsclippings, and an occasional reprint of speeches, articles and book chapters written by Ellison. This is not an extensive collection of writings but it suggests that Ellison may have written more than has been apparent to some; contrast, for example, Oscar Winther's claims in the article above. A search of all extant issues of Midwest Review may turn up additional articles written by him. Because Ellison wrote so many notes for the file in the process of collecting and filing typescript copies of manuscript sources he was not able to acquire in their original format, it is often difficult to draw the line between these formal notes and writings intended for publication or public consumption. See, for example, his "Hasty Notes on the Semi-Centennial of the Little Big Horn or Custer Fight Near Crow Indian Agency, Montana. June 24, 25, 26, 1926," which has a formal title and could have been filed in writings or research and reference. In the final analysis, the decision to separate or not was a matter of the archivist's judgment. If the item in question seemed to have been formalized for publication, public address, or circulation, it was filed under writings; if not, it was placed in research and reference.The Research and Reference Files contain materials collected by Ellison pertaining to the full range of his interests in the history of the American West. The files contain typescripts, holographs, newsclippings, reprints, brochures, biographical sketches, and occasional correspondence. The files contain a large number of copied sources and newspaper articles saved by Ellison, which, at first glance may seem to have marginal value. They are valuable for research, however, especially those from older, scarce, and in some cases no longer extant newspapers and other publications. Compare, for example, the value of Dale L. Morgan's transcripts of overland sources from newspaper files that are now preserved in the Coe Collection in the Yale University Library. The file also contains a significant number of substantive original manuscripts, both holograph and typewritten, such as those of William Carey Brown, T. J. Brundage, William Francis Hooker, and Thomas Stuart McFarland.Significant subjects documented include the following: (l) Western army posts, including information on Forts Bridger, Fetterman, Phil Kearney, Laramie, Leavenworth, Reno, and Robinson; (2) Native Americans, and Indian battles and fights, including the Cheyennes, the Little Bighorn, Platte Bridge, Red Buttes, Washita, Red River, Wagon Box, and the Connor-Cole Expedition; (3) Noted historical figures and lesser-known individuals, such as Sacajawea, Crazy Horse, Jim Bridger, William Henry Jackson, William F. Cody, John H. Crumb, John Hunton, and William F. Hooker; (4) Other individuals, such as fellow collectors, writers, photographers, etc., including Earl Brininstool, Robert Bruce, William Carey Brown, David F. Barry, A. B. Ostrander, Grace Hebard, and George Bird Grinnell; and (5) Places, sites, and overland journeys, including information on Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana history and sites, the Oregon and Bozeman trails, and the Grand Tetons. In describing these research materials, the word "typescript" was used in a general way, i.e. sometimes a typescript will be an original manuscript acquired by Ellison and other times--usually--it will be a typescript copy of an original source such as a diary or published article that was made by Ellison or his secretary. The overall research value of the Ellison Collection is significant, especially when it is combined with related holdings in the BYU Library and with the other Ellison Collections preserved in the Denver Public Library and the Lilly Library of Indiana University. The BYU collection--in both the correspondence and the research and reference files (not to mention the separate photograph collection)--reflects Ellison's long and abiding interest in the American West. Contemporary and future students of the West will find much of lasting significance in the books, manuscripts and photographs that Ellison preserved. Beyond that obvious value, the collection is an important mirror of the psyche and methods of a generation of seekers after the idea of the West. Ellison's papers along with those of his contemporaries such as Walter Camp, Earl Brininstool, and William Carey Brown, document a generation of men driven by their desire to preserve the history of the "Old West" that had ceased to exist in the generation prior to theirs. In such pursuits they were guided by their own version of what William H. and William N. Goetzmann have called the West of the Imagination. Ellison and men like him sought to know, mark, record and remember the West as it actually was. Their conception of that West grew out of what they had read, the paintings and photographs they had seen, and the old timers and sole survivors they interviewed (often late in the life of the latter). Thus this collection is a valuable source in scholars' continually evolving attempt to understand how each succeeding generation of Americans has viewed, preserved, and used their past. A number of separate collections were formed from materials removed from the Research and Reference File of the Ellison Collection. The rationale for such action was having sufficient size or significance to justify an individual catalog entry in order to insure wider access and use. The collections include the following: materials returned to the Walter Mason Camp collection (see the provenance note in that register; Mss 57); nine letters (all TLS's) written to Maurice Frink 1947-1953 by Fred Dustin (6 letters) and Charles Kuhlman (3 letters) returned to the Frink Collection (Mss 656); three Kit Carson holographs, a letter and two statements for service rendered to the U.S. Army added to the Carson Collection, (Vault Mss 513); Henry S. Huntington diaries, speeches, and two carte de visites of him; William Henry Jackson manuscripts, (Mss 1608); William A. Carter, (Mss SC 490); John Bradish; Frank W. and Sarah E. Blake letters; H. M. Comstoer letter re: lumber prices in Palmyra, N. Y. in 1835; John Hunton, (Mss SC 103); and several documents bearing the signature of a U. S. President were cataloged individually or added to the autograph collection (Vault Mss 2). The following items were transferred to the Special Collections Department of the Harold B. Lee Library: two government documents entitled, House of Representatives, 39th Congress, 2d Session (Ex. Doc. No. 20): The Secretary of War, Report of Inspection of Military Posts, Jan. 3, 1867, 15 p., and House of Representatives, 39th Congress, 2d Session (Ex. Doc. No. 45): The Secretary of War, Report of Inspection made by Generals Rusling and Hazen, January 19, 1867, 70 p. a book entitled, Le Petit Mouton, Imite de l'allemand Du Chanoine Schmid. 4th edition, Paris, Chez Gaume Freres, Libraires, ...1836 (see Box 6 Folder 4); a fragmentary copy of J. Stockton, A. M., The Western Calculator on a New and Compendious System of Practical Arithmetic..., 4th edition, (1837?); Ax-I-Dent-Ax, (employees' magazine), United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company and Subsidiaries, Vol. 14, No.s 6 and 7, June and July, 1929; and the following newspapers: The Casper Tribune-Herald, Casper, Wyo., March 3, 1929; Cody Enterprise, Cody, Wyo., August 6, 1927; Colorado Springs Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Jan. 1, 1892 and Jan. 1, 1895; Gary Owen Trumpeter, 7th U.S. Cavalry, Fort Bliss, Texas, June 12, 1926; Guernsey Gazette, Guernsey, Wyo., Aug. 27, 1926; Lapeer Republican, Lapeer, Michigan, Sept. 24, 1860; Monroe Evening News, Monroe, Michigan, June 23 and 24, 1926; Northwest Nebraska News, Crawford, Nebraska, Sept. 6, 1934; Owosso, Dream City of the Indians, written for the Owosso [Michigan] Centennial, 1936; The Pawnee Courier-Dispatch, Vol. 45, No. 41, Pawnee, Oklahoma, Thursday, Aug. 15, 1940; Pikes Peak Daily News, June 28, 1940; Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Aug. 20, 1937; Tribune Extra, Bismarck, Dakota Territory, July 6, 1876, reprint; Wind River Mountaineer, Lander, Wyo., Oct. 28, 1904; Winners of the West, St. Joseph, Missouri, Feb. 28, 1927, Sept. 30 1929, Oct. 30 &​ Nov. 30, 1933, March 30 &​ May 30, 1934, March 30, 1935, March 30, April 30, &​ July 1936, June 28, 1942; and The World, Color Gravure Section, Part 1, New York, N.Y., April 7, 1929. In addition, many books in Western Americana that were once owned by Ellison and carry a bookplate, an inscription from a friend such as William Henry Jackson, or both, are now cataloged in Special Collections.A piece of sheet music, "Fort Harrison March," Composed and Most Respectfully Dedicated to Genl. Zachary Taylor, by C. H. Weber, Published by Balmer &​ Weber, St. Louis and Firth, Pond &​ Co., New York, n.d., was transferred to the Music Department of the Lee Library. The photographs were separated to the Photoarchives and a separate inventory of them is available. Selected photographs were transferred to the William Henry Jackson Photograph Collection, including an ambrotype of Caroline "Caddie" Eastman, (MssP66).A book entitled, Genealogy of the Williams Family: the Descendants of Robert Williams, of Roxbury, Mass.,... by E. S. Williams. (1877?), was transferred to the Genealogical Society Branch Library in the Lee Library. ; The collection is arranged in eight series in the following order: Biographical, Genealogical, Mementos, General Correspondence, Journal, Business Career, Writings, and Research &​ Reference File. The correspondence is arranged chronologically. The only guaranteed subject access to it as a whole is to read it in its entirety. See the name index mentioned above. The writings are arranged alphabetically by title. The research and reference file is arranged alphabetically by author, title or subject. When the author was known the material was filed by author. A title was used when it was more meaningful than a known author, or when the author was not known. A subject was used when materials had obviously been gathered by subject and no single author or title was apparent. Limited cross references [such as "See" and "See Also"] were used where their value was readily apparent. Users with a specific frame of reference or subject perspective and background will see connections and linkages and significance in some sources not apparent to the archivist. The user is therefore advised to search the entire container list to increase the chance of finding information on a given person or subject. For example, those interested in Fort Bridger must peruse the general correspondence, the writings, and the research and reference file under at least Jim Bridger, Fort Bridger, and William A. Carter.
  • For related information on Robert S. Ellison in other manuscript collections in the BYU Library check BYLINE and the Manuscripts Card Catalog. See especially the following manuscript collections: Walter Mason Camp (Mss 57), Fred Rosenstock, William A. Carter (Mss SC 490), William Henry Jackson (Mss 1608 and Mss P66), John Hunton (Mss SC 103), Charles Kuhlman (Mss 1401), William Carey Brown (Mss 1474), and Earl Brininstool. Significant collections of Ellison's papers also are preserved in the Denver Public Library and in the Lilly Library of Indiana University along with the bulk of his library of Western Americana. For a partial duplication of the Denver Public Library Collection, see Mss SC 568, consisting of one reel of 35mm microfilm, a calendar of the contents of the film, and a partial typescript (3 folders). Included also is a list of Jackson-Ellison correspondence in the DPL; a copy of that list is preserved in Research and Reference under Jackson. For information on possible Ellison manuscripts in other respositories, search the on-line computer database of the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN). For printed materials written by or about Ellison check the Lee Library's Main and Special Collections Catalogs as well as BYLINE.
  • MSS 782
Terms of Use
  • Copyright is held by the Ellison heirs, by the heirs of the creators of various items, and possibly by the Lilly Library. ; It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.Permission to publish material from Robert S. Ellison Collection must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/​or the Special Collections Board of Curators.
Language
  • English
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