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Charles Kelly photograph collection, 1910-1970

Overview of the Collection

Title
Charles Kelly photograph collection
Dates
1910-1970 (inclusive)
1920-1940 (bulk)
Quantity
3 boxes, (1.5 linear ft.)
Collection Number
UUS_P0003
Summary
Revised text test: Photographs, negatives, and slides (taken and collected by Kelly) consist primarily of landscapes of national parks and monuments in Montana, Wyoming, Utah Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado. Also included are a number of family snapshots. Bulk of the photographs are unidentified.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections and Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to public research. Nitrate negatives have been removed from this collection and placed in Cold Storage box 1. Patrons must request to view these negatives 3 hours in advance.

Languages
Collection materials are in English.
Sponsor
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, 2007-2008
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Biographical Note

Charles Kelly was born February 3, 1889, in a roaring lumber camp in Cedar Springs, Michigan. As a boy of seven he learned to set type in a small print shop which his father used to turn out religious tracts. He attended college in Indiana for a short time, but when money ran out he began wandering as a tramp printer in the West and Far West. He served in the army during World War I, during which time he met and corresponded with Harriette Greener. In February 1919, he and Harriette married and settled in Utah. For the next twenty years Kelly continued to earn his living as a linotype operator and printer, eventually becoming a partner in the Western Printing Company. In the meantime, he became interesting in local history, as a result of a trip to the Great Salt Lake Desert in 1929. Although he continued in the printing business, his passion was to research and write about the stories of the old West. He was particularly interested in the Utah-Arizona-Nevada region. His publications included Salt Desert Trails (1929), Holy Murder (1934, the story of Porter Rockwell), Old Greenwood (1936, the story of Caleb Greenwood), Miles Goodyear (1937), and Outlaw Trail (1938, a history of Butch Cassidy). Kelly also edited the Journals of John D. Lee, 1846-1847 and 1859 (1938) and wrote numerous articles. He died on April 19, 1971.

Kelly was extremely bold in many aspects of his life- in outdoor adventures, in attitude, and in politics. He took the first automobile across the Salt Lake Desert on the Donner trail, and he floated Glen Canyon several times in the years when it was not generally known. As the first custodian of Capitol Reef National Monument, he compiled an immense body of interpretive information. Extremely anti-religious, he lived squarely in the middle of Mormon country and dared the Mormons to do something about it. He was also one of the founding fathers of the Utah Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.

For more information about Kelly see, A. Russel Mortensen, "In Memoriam," Utah Historical Quarterly 39 (Spring 1971): 199-200 and Gary Topping, "Charles Kelly's Glen Canyon Ventures and Adventures," Utah Historical Quarterly 55 (Spring 1987): 120-136.

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Content Description

The Charles Kelly collection consists of 574 photographs and a few accompanying negatives. The photographs, taken and collected by Kelly, consist primarily of landscapes of national parks and monuments in Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and Colorado. Also included are a number of family snapshots. Unfortunately, the bulk of the photographs are unidentified. Because different parts of the collection were discovered at different times, the arrangement may seem a bit disjointed. An organizational attempt of some kind has nonetheless been made as similar print types were assembled and the prints were put into a loose chronological arrangement. The bulk of the items are silver gelatin developing-out-paper snaps. Most of the negatives were nitrate, duplicated onto dry diazo film.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the user to obtain permission to publish from the owner of the copyright (the institution, the creator of the record, the author or his/her transferees, heirs, legates, or literary executors). The user agrees to indemnify and hold harmless the Utah State University Libraries, its officers, employees, and agents from and against all claims made by any person asserting that he or she is an owner of copyright.

Permission to publish material from the Charles Kelly photograph collection must be obtained from the Special Collections Photograph Curator and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Charles Kelly photograph collection, 1910-1970. (P0003). Utah State University. Special Collections & Archives Department.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

This collection organized by geographic place and/or by format.

Acquisition Information

The collection was transferred to Nelson Wadsworth, professor emeritus of journalism, by the Kelly estate. Wadsworth then gave them to USU Special Collections. The Charles Kelly manuscript collection can be found at the University of Utah Marriot Library (MS 0100), and the Kelly papers are at the Utah State Historical Society (Manuscript Collection B-114).

Processing Note

Register completed by Todd Welker, April 2001.

Related Materials

Charles Kelly manuscript collection, University of Utah Marriot Library (MS 0100)

Kelly papers, Utah State Historical Society (Manuscript Collection B-114).

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Detailed Description of the Collection

  • Miscellaneous Snapshots, undated

    Where there is no state indicated for a place name, that place is in Utah. The folder level descriptions do not attempt to mention everything in the folder, but items thought to be of particular interest.

  • Undated Snapshots, undated

    A highly miscellaneous box of photographs, some identified as to place. They were arranged loosely by size and type of print, with a view to bring at least general time periods together. Much southwestern scenery, family, friends, etc..

    • Description: 2:01:01-2:01:16: Snapshots

      Includes photo of Kelly as a Boy Scouts leader.

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 1
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:02:01-2:02:16: Snapshots
      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 2
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:03:01-2:03:16: Snapshots

      Some negatives included. Southwestern scenery, including Indian ruins; photos taken in Glacier National Park [Montana], and other probably taken in Montana when Kelly lived there just before entering the Army. Some of the shots in this folder seem to aim for a painterly look.

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 3
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:04:01-2:04:11: Snapshots
      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 4
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:05:01-2:05:15: Snapshots

      Many probably taken in Montana; some probably the Sun River near Great Falls, as one print is positively identified as such in folder 7.

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 5
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:06:01-2:06:15: Snapshots

      Many probably taken in Montana.

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 6
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:07:01-2:07:14: Snapshots

      Scenery, including Sun River near Great Falls.

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 7
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:08:01-2:08:15: Snapshots

      Scenery.

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 8
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:09:01-2:09:16: Snapshots

      Scenery; portraits; Kelly posed with a four-piece band.

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 9
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:10:01-2:10:12: Snapshots

      Scenery; portraits, including one of western artist Charles M. Russell working on a canvas in his studio (Kelly took lessons from him in Montana).

      Dates: 1910-1919
      Container: Box 2, Folder 10
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:11:01-2:11:17: Snapshots

      Indian ruins; Utah scenery including Mt. Timpanogas, mine at Lake Solitude, and the Uintahs.

      Dates: 1920-1929
      Container: Box 2, Folder 11
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:12:01-2:12:15: Snapshots

      Interiors, Timpanogas cave [?]; Salt Lake City scenes including Brigham Young's Beehive House, view south/southwest over the city from the Capitol, and a view south from the mouth of Parley's Canyon.

      Dates: 1920-1939
      Container: Box 2, Folder 12
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:13:01-2:13:15: Snapshots

      Includes photos of Kelly as a ranger at Capitol Reef National Monument.

      Dates: 1930-1950
      Container: Box 2, Folder 13
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:14:01-2:14:08: Photographs

      Mainly photographs of Kelly, one standing before one of his paintings.

      Dates: 1950-1969
      Container: Box 2, Folder 14
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:15:01: Interior photograph mounted on board, Kelly at work in the Western Printing Co., Salt Lake City
      Dates: 1924
      Container: Box 2, Folder 15
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:16:01: Interior photograph mounted on board, Kelly at work in the Western Printing Co., Salt Lake City
      Dates: 1924
      Container: Box 2, Folder 16
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:17:01-2:17:12: 35 mm Slides

      Subjects include Mt. Rushmore, pictographs, and Capitol Reef National Monument.

      Dates: 1940-1959
      Container: Box 2, Folder 17
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:18:01-2:18:06: Petroglyphs and Pictographs
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 2, Folder 18
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:19:01-2:19:17: Miscellany
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 2, Folder 19
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: 2:20: Miscellaneous textual materials
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box 2, Folder 20
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated
    • Description: Additional accrued snapshots

      Includes Kelly on Doc Inglesby's porch, camping at Ouray, Utah, and with Harriette and others at Capital Reef.

      Dates: 1933-1958
      Container: Box 2, Folder 21
      Location: Undated Snapshots, undated

  • Miscellaneous Negatives, undated

    Besides the negatives listed below, the box contains unnumbered and uncategorized negatives for which prints do not yet exist

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • National monuments--West (U.S.)--Photographs.
  • National parks and reserves--West (U.S.)--Photographs.

Geographical Names

  • Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)--Photographs.
  • Capitol Reef National Park (Utah)--Photographs.
  • Glacier National Park (Mont.)--Photographs.
  • Grand Canyon National Park (Ariz.)--Photographs.
  • Kaibab National Forest (Ariz.)--Photographs.
  • Salt Lake City (Utah)--Photographs.
  • Yellowstone National Park--Photographs.
  • Zion National Park (Utah)--Photographs.

Finding aid created by Todd Welker, April 2001.
2008

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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