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Munk (Joseph Amasa) Papers, and other materials
MS.209
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Contributing Institution:
Library and Archives at the Autry
Title: J. A. (Joseph Amasa) Munk Papers
Creator:
McClintock, James H.
Creator:
Lummis, Charles Fletcher
Creator:
Lloyd-Butler, John
Creator:
Webster, Herbert T. (Herbert Tracy)
Creator:
Munk, J. A. (Joseph Amasa)
Identifier/Call Number: MS.209
Physical Description:
9.3 Linear Feet
27 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1834-1928, undated
Date (bulk): 1851-1928
Abstract: J. A. (Joseph Amasa) Munk was a Civil War veteran and a doctor of eclectic medicine. His interest in collecting publications
on Arizona led him to create the Munk Library of Arizoniana, housed at the Southwest Museum. The
J. A. (Joseph Amasa) Munk Papers includes papers, scrapbooks, bibliographic index cards of his Munk Library of Arizoniana, printing plates for his publication
Arizona Sketches, badges, and photographs.
Language of Material:
English
.
Appointments to view materials are required. To make an appointment please visit
https://theautry.org/research-collections/library-and-archives and fill out the Researcher Application Form.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Autry Museum of the American West. All requests for permission to publish or quote
from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Research Services and Archives. Permission for publication is
given on behalf of the Autry Museum of the American West as the custodian of the physical items and is not intended to include
or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.
J. A. (Joseph Amasa) Munk Papers, 1834-1928, Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; MS.209; [folder number] [folder
title][date].
This collection was donated to the Museum at an unknown date.
Dr. Joseph Amasa Munk was born on November 9, 1847 in North Georgetown, Ohio. He joined up with the Union Army from 1864-1865
and fought in the Civil War. When the war was over, he attended Mt. Union College in Ohio from 1865-1866 and then the Eclectic
Medical Institute of Cincinnati, graduating in 1869. While attending Mt. Union College, he met Emma S. Beazell, and they married
in 1873. While in school, Munk also enjoyed learning to read and sing music, a hobby he continued on into the 1870s. By the
time he published a book of his own compositions, he was the organist and choir leader of his church.
Munk was living in Topeka, Kansas in 1884 when he made his first trip to Arizona to visit his brothers Edward and William
on their cattle ranch. He came away from the trip so fascinated by Arizona that he set out to collect every publication he
could find on the subject. He wrote articles about Arizona and the Southwest which were published in the same medical journals
as his writings on medical topics. In 1892, Munk and his family moved to Los Angeles, where Munk was dean of the California
Eclectic Medical College from 1907-1915 and president of the National Eclectic Medical Association in 1910.
About ten years after reaching Los Angeles, Munk decided to open his collection of books to the public and began to seek out
a fitting repository. While Arizona was the obvious choice, it was still just finding its footing as a state. Munk's concerns
of access, custodianship, and the lack of a fireproof building led him to decide against donating the collection to the state
of Arizona. Munk kept searching for the proper home for his collection and discussed this with his friend, Charles Fletcher
Lummis. They shared a concern for the "fragility" of the Southwestern lifestyle and the desire to preserve its culture.
In 1903, Munk joined Lummis' newly established local branch of the Archaeological Institute of America, whose ultimate goal
was to create the Southwest Museum. In 1907, the Southwest Museum was incorporated into being, and Munk was elected to the
Board of Trustees. In 1910, Munk donated his collection, which Lummis named the Munk Library of Arizoniana, to the Southwest
Museum. After the University of Arizona built its own fireproof library in 1923, a bid was made to obtain the Munk Library
of Arizoniana from the Southwest Museum. The request was denied, so Munk sent all of his collection's duplicates to the university
instead. Munk continued to visit his library housed at the Southwest Museum up until his death on December 3, 1927.
Charles F. Lummis Manuscript Collection, 1879-1928, Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; MS.1.
George Bird Grinnell Manuscript Collection, 1815-1938, Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; MS.5.
Hector and Laurena Alliot Manuscript Collection, 1901-1925, Braun Research Library Collection, Autry Museum of the American West, Los Angeles; MS.126.
Joseph Grinnell papers, BANC MSS C-B 995, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
The collection is arranged into the following categories, and a folder-level container list is available.
- Personal papers and manuscripts
- Scrapbooks
- Bibliographic index cards
- Arizona Sketches printing plates
- Badges
- Photographs
Initial processing and cataloging was performed by library staff and volunteers. Some manuscript materials were processed
by Honora J. Hunt as part of the 1938 Historical Records Survey under the Works Progress Administration Division of Women's
and Professional Projects. Additional processing and cataloging was performed by Holly Rose Larson, Project Archivist, funded
by a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) in 2011.
The
J.A. (Joseph Amasa) Munk Papers includes personal papers, scrapbooks, bibliographic index cards of his Munk Library of Arizoniana, printing plates for his
publication
Arizona Sketches, badges, and photographs.
The collection of papers includes certificates received by Munk, correspondence, manuscripts by and about Munk, as well as
manuscripts Munk collected. The manuscripts by Munk cover various topics, such as medicine, music, the Southwest, and his
notes and proofs for his publication
Southwest Sketches.
Most of Munk's medical articles were written for the
California Eclectic Medical Journal or the
Los Angeles Journal of Eclectic Medicine. These same journals also published Munk's articles on the Southwest, Arizona, his botanical garden, his brother's cattle
ranch, and his collection of books which eventually became the Munk Library of Arizoniana.
The photographs in this collection are of Munk in his professional and social life, and of Arizona people and landscapes.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Medicine, Eclectic
Munk Library of Arizoniana (Southwest Museum. Los Angeles, Calif.)
Arizona -- History
Geology -- Arizona
Arizona -- Geography
Hopi Indians
Apache Indians
Mines and mineral resources
Book collecting