Historic Mobile Preservation Society Speech, 1979

File — Box: 54, Folder: 9

Identifier: IX

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection: The A. Russell Mortensen papers (1830-1996) consist of the personal and professional papers of Mortensen (b. 1911), a teacher, administrator, and editor. The small amount of personal material consists of a few letters from family embers, letters about his service in the naval reserve, and information about the disposition of the estate of Mary Burnham Jones. The first box holds these personal materials as well as alphabetically arranged correspondence from friends and acquaintances. These letters do not include material related to other portions of the collection.

Mortensen occupied a number of professional positions during his career. Correspondence and information about these jobs, arranged alphabetically by organizational title, are filed together in Box 2. Also contained in this portion are applications and correspondence about a number of positions for which Mortensen applied. There is a small chronological file of recommendations written by Mortensen between 1968 and 1970.

There are four boxes of alphabetically arranged materials from organizations of which Mortensen was a member. These files include correspondence, membership information, general information about the organization, committee reports and recommendations, and other miscellaneous material.

One box of manuscripts, articles, and publication information includes a draft of Early Utah Sketches, written by Mortensen and illustrated with sketches by Carlos Andreson (University of Utah Press, 1970). There are copies of a number of brief articles published in Utah newspapers by Mortensen while he was the Director of the Utah State Historical Society. Also included is correspondence about C. Gregory Crampton's book Standing Up Country, and copies of manuscripts about Utah and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints written by people other than Mortensen.

Among the Mormons, published in 1958, was written in collaboration with William Mulder. There are three different drafts of the book included: a final draft, a complete manuscript with cut-and-paste revisions, and an incomplete draft with written revisions of the front pages and the first three sections of this anthology. There are three boxes of materials from which the extracted portions of the book were taken. As all of these previously published materials are arranged alphabetically by author they do not appear again in the index.

The bulk of the collection consists of the files concerning the American West magazine. Six boxes of material cover the business dealings of the publication. Included are correspondence and other informational material dealing with finances, legal problems, magazine production and promotion, and miscellaneous related subjects.

Under the sponsorship of the Western History Association and the University of Utah, publication and promotion of the magazine was undertaken by Lane Book Company. In 1965 a new company, American West Publishing Company, was formed to take over that function. The business files include correspondence about the controversy which developed because staff members holding paid positions with the University and working on the American West stood to profit from holding stock in the new publishing company. It was at this point that Mortensen resigned as editor, and the files contain very little post-dating 1967.

The following twenty boxes contain manuscripts and correspondence sent to A. Russell Mortensen as editor of the American West. Filed in seventeen of these are manuscripts which were published in the magazine, and correspondence. The letters include those about the manuscripts, many asking about possible publication, those from the magazine to publishing houses seeking books to be reviewed and a few seeking other kinds of information or reprints of articles appearing in the magazine. The other three boxes contain manuscripts, and accompanying correspondence, which were submitted but for various reasons, were never published. These unpublished manuscripts are available for research use, but may not be copied without written permission from the author. All the manuscripts and correspondence are arranged alphabetically. Because of this arrangement not all names reappear in the index.

Some of the manuscripts, both published and unpublished were accompanied by editorial comments or staff evaluations. On the basis of a letter from the Assistant Attorney General for the University of Utah, these evaluations and comments have been declared confidential and removed to closed files until the year 2017.

The final portion of the collection includes papers given at the 1965 North American Fur Trade Conference. Some of these papers were published in a volume titled Aspects of the Fur Trade: Selected Papers of the 1965 North American Fur Trade Conference (Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1967). These are filed together alphabetically. The remaining, unpublished papers are also filed in alphabetical order and may be used for research purposes but not copied without written permission of the author.

Addenda to the collection includes correspondence, grant proposals, writings, news clippings, and materials on western history.

Dates

1979

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.