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Preliminary Guide to the Harry McGuire Collection
SBHC Mss 54  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Access Restrictions
  • Publication Rights
  • Preferred Citation
  • Acquisition Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content Notes
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Harry McGuire Collection
    Dates: ca. 1659-1980
    Bulk Dates: 1910s-1966
    Collection number: SBHC Mss 54
    Creator: McGuire, Harry, 1904-
    Collection Size: 12 linear feet (13 document boxes, 9 oversize boxes, 3 records cartons, and 1 map cabinet file).
    Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections
    Santa Barbara, CA 93106
    Abstract: Correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and publications edited by McGuire, who spent his later years in Santa Barbara. Includes materials relating to the Music Academy and Santa Barbara Council of Arts. Also, Hogarth prints (18c), British engravings and handbills (mainly 19c), and caricatures, cartoons, and drawings (mainly for his magazine Ringmaster). Large related book collection, mainly 19th and 20th century American and British literature, including first editions of Hamlin Garland, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Morley, and H. G. Wells, which have been cataloged separately.
    Physical location: Boxes 1-10, 23-25 (SRLF); Del Sur (Boxes 11-13 (Del Sur); Boxes 14-22 (Del Sur Oversize); Map Cabinet 20/19.
    Languages: English

    Access Restrictions

    None. Majority of materials stored off-site; advance notice required for retrieval.

    Publication Rights

    Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

    Preferred Citation

    Harry McGuire Collection. SBHC Mss 54. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

    Acquisition Information

    Donation from the estate, Jay Monaghan executor, ca. 1966-1980.

    Biography

    See Jay Monaghan article in Soundings, Jan. 1979 (source for most of the following information):
    Born, January 18, 1904, in Denver, the son of Mr. and Mrs. James/[John?] A. McGuire. Early interest in hunting and fishing from his father. Father in the 1890s owned several hunting and fishing magazines, including Outdoor Life. Harry grew up in a wealthy family; as a teenager was active in writing, school plays and oratorical contests. Went to Notre Dame in 1921, president of the Scribblers Club. Graduated and returned to Denver, where he became Associate Editor, 1924-1929, of Outdoor Life, which had absorbed several other outdoor publications and had a circulation of 115,000. Editor-in-chief, 1929, then stock market crash, and disagreement about future of the magazine with his father, who sold it.
    Spent much of his time on hunting/fishing trips, but also went to Florence, Italy, for a year, studying and writing about art. Had come back to work on Outdoor Life for new owners but left again, determined to be an independent author in New York. Wrote a novel, two dramas, a musical comedy with black dancers, and published a financially extravagant magazine entitled Ringmaster: The World in Caricature, which folded after four issues.
    After a number of other failed or short-lived mostly writing-related enterprises, in 1945 he moved to Santa Barbara, which he had visited at times while in Los Angeles (where his father had moved). He purchased a house at 2311 Garden Street in 1954. He became involved in SB social life, married and divorced, organized the Santa Barbara Council of Arts, met UCSB Chancellor Vernon Cheadle, became friends and ultimately gave UCSB his house, $100,000 for its maintenance, and his books and papers.
    Monaghan apparently became acquainted with Harry as a member of the Board of the Council of Arts. Lawrence Willson also was a director. The Council had its monthly programs at the Coral Casino, Santa Barbara Academy of Music, the Art Gallery, and frequently in some member's Montecito mansion. Monaghan and McGuire also would have shared similar experiences in the West of the early 20th century, and early in his writing career, Monaghan had submitted stories to Outdoor Life.
    Harry Aloysius McGuire died in Santa Barbara, Feb. 1, 1966.

    Scope and Content Notes

    Arrangement

    The collection contains the following series:
    • Biographical/Personal
    • British Engravings, Handbills, and Related
    • Caricatures/Cartoons/Drawings (mainly for Ringmaster)
    • Hogarth Prints
    • Paintings
    • Photographs
    • Scrapbooks
    • Miscellany
    Note that this is part of a much larger collection, mainly books, some housed in Special Collections and some in Main stacks, mainly 19th and 20th century American and British literature, including first editions of Hamlin Garland, Aldous Huxley, Christopher Morley, and H. G. Wells. Books have a distinctive bookplate. Keyword search turns up 76 titles in Pegasus (these generally would be Special Collections items), but probably those in Main don't have note field indicating provenance.
    Entries include:
    • McGuire, Harry. Tales of Rod and Gun: A Collection of the Best American Hunting and Fishing Stories. New York, The Macmillan Company, 1931.
    • McGuire, Harry. Twelve Tales. Santa Barbara: Schauer Printing Studio, 1962.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
    McGuire, Harry, 1904-
    Hogarth Press
    Caricatures and cartoons.
    Engravings--British.
    Santa Barbara (Calif.)