Collection Guide
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Clark (William Andrews, Jr.) and William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Records
Clarkive.Pre-1934
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Title: William Andrews Clark, Jr. and William Andrews Clark Memorial Library Records
Creator:
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Identifier/Call Number: Clarkive.Pre-1934
Physical Description:
25 Linear Feet
(55 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1878-2022
Abstract: This collection consists of the pre-1934 institutional archive of the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and the records
of its founder, William Andrews Clark, Jr. Items include correspondence, invoices, photographs, secondary source materials
and other documents related to Clark, his library, and his family, friends and colleagues.
Physical Location: Clark Library
Language of Material:
English
.
Collection is open for research.
This finding aid is arranged into 6 series:
- Correspondence, Invoices and Gift Books
- People Files
- Clark Library Building and Grounds
- Other Clark-related Buildings, Properties and Organizations
- News and Media Clippings
- Miscellany
Biographical and Historical Note
William Andrews Clark, Jr. was born in Deer Lodge, Montana in 1877, the youngest son of copper baron William Andrews Clark,
Sr. (1839-1925) and Katherine Stauffer Clark (1844-1893). Clark, Jr. (or WAC Jr.) attended schools in France and New York,
and graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor's Degree in Law in 1899. He then returned to Butte, Montana,
where he worked as a partner in the law firm Roote and Clark, and also served on the boards of several mining and industrial
concerns.
In 1902, he married Mabel Duffield Foster (1881-1903), who had grown up in Butte just down the street from the Clark residence.
Mabel died of sepsis following the birth of their son, William Andrews Clark, III ("Tertius"), in 1903. In 1907, Clark married
Alice Genevieve McManus Medin (1884-1918), a recent divorcee originally from Virginia City, Nevada, and they moved from Butte
to Los Angeles in the early 1910s. Their house at Adams Boulevard and Cimarron Street occupied the grounds that the Clark
Library still stands on today. Though Clark would continue to be involved in the Elm Orlu Mine and Timber Butter Milling Company,
among other mining businesses until his death, he does not appear to have worked actively as a lawyer after his move to Los
Angeles. Alice McManus Clark died at the Clark residence in Los Angeles in November 1918. Clark never remarried, and soon
after Alice's death, met his long-time partner, Harrison Post.
Around the time of his move to LA, WAC Jr. began collecting antiquarian and fine press books as a serious hobby (he had dabbled
in book buying previous to this). In 1919, he hired bibliographer Robert E. Cowan to consult on collection-building and the
compilation of a printed library catalog. The first volume of this was printed in 1920 by San Francisco printer John Henry
Nash, and many other volumes, dedicated to different portions of the collection, would be issued over time, all printed by
Nash.
After a small kitchen fire in his home around 1924, Clark decided he needed a separate, fireproof library building and hired
architect Robert David Farquhar to design the present library building, with interior decoration by Harrison Post. Upon completion
in 1926, Clark promised the library and grounds to UCLA after his death. When Clark died in Montana in 1934, the Clark Library
became a part of UCLA.
In addition to Robert E. Cowan, who worked at the Library until 1932, Cora Edgerton Sanders and Harrison Post both did significant
work in the building, cataloging, and maintenance of the Clark Library's collections. Sanders in particular served as a librarian
and curator at the Clark Library until 1943, and was responsible for much of the library's record-keeping and bibliographic
correspondence.
Other related collections at the Clark Library include:
* Post-1934 Clark Memorial Library Institutional Archive, Post-1934 Clarkive,
Online finding aid .
* John Clifford Cowles Collection, MS.1956.004 -
Online finding aid .
* Robert D. Farquhar Collection, MS.1968.017 -
Online finding aid .
* Montana Manuscript Collection, Mont Mss -
Online finding aid .
[identification of item] Records of William Andrews Clark, Jr. and the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, Clarkive Pre-1934,
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
After many decades of use and many different organizational systems imposed by various staff members, this collection was
formally processed and this finding aid written by Rebecca Fenning Marschall in 2011-2012.
Major revisions to the biographical notes and other contextual information in this finding aid were made by Rebecca Fenning
Marschall in August 2022 in order to better represent the lives of Cora Sanders, Alice McManus Clark, Mabel Duffield Clark,
and Harrison Post, and to bring descriptions in line with ethical cataloging best practices.
Reference Sources on Clark History
Sources used in the compilation of this finding aid include primary source materials described in this finding aid, newspaper
clippings from various Montana and California newspapers accessed via Chronicling America and Newspapers.com, and vital and
census records accessed via Ancestry.com.
Printed sources include:
* The Clarks : an American phenomenon / by William D. Mangam. New York : Silver Bow Press, 1941.
Clark Library call number F730 .C59 (William Andrews Clark, Sr., and his children, including William Andrews Clark, Jr.)
* Empty mansions : the mysterious life of Huguette Clark and the spending of a great American fortune / Bill Dedman and Paul
Clark Newell, Jr. New York : Ballantine Books, 2013.
Clark Library call number CT275.C6273 D33 (Huguette Clark, William Andrews Clark, Sr., Anna LaChapelle Clark)
* The phantom of Fifth Avenue : the mysterious life and scandalous death of heiress Huguette Clark / Meryl Gordon. New York,
NY : Grand Central Publishing, 2014.
Clark CT275.C6273 G66 (Huguette Clark, William Andrews Clark, Sr.
* Twilight Man / Liz Brown. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2021.
Clark Library call number HQ75.8.P673 B87 2021 (Harrison Post, William Andrews Clark, Jr., George John Pale)
* William Andrews Clark, Jr., his cultural legacy : papers read at a Clark Library seminar, 7 November 1981 / by William E.
Conway, Robert Stevenson. William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, 1985.
Clark Library call number Z733.C59 W71 (William Andrews Clark, Jr.)
* "With these philistines we have no quarrel" : William Andrews Clark, Jr. as collector and public benefactor / Bruce Whiteman.
In Gazette of the Grolier Club. New ser., no. 59/60 (2008/2009).
Clark Library call number Z733.C59 W5 (William Andrews Clark, Jr.)
This collection consists of the personal archive of William Andrews Clark, Jr. and the institutional archive of the William
Andrews Clark Memorial Library up to 1934 (when Clark, Jr. died and the library became part of UCLA). In addition to primary
source materials, this collection also includes secondary sources and other materials related to Clark, his family and close
associates, and the library itself. The collection comprises correspondence, invoices, photographs, ephemera, official reports,
press clippings, and artifacts, dating from 1878 to 2022. Most of the materials collected here are records relating to collection
development, bibliography, maintenance, and construction of the Clark Library. There are also significant materials related
to the published catalogs and specially printed Christmas gift books printed by John Henry Nash and circulated by Clark, Jr.
Most of WAC Jr.'s personal papers and effects no longer exist and are presumed destroyed. Similarly, the Clark Library does
not possess any primary source material related to WAC Jr.'s first wife, Mabel Duffield Foster, and very little paper-based
primary source material related to his second wife, Alice G. McManus, or his father, William Andrews Clark, Sr. The Clark
Library recognizes that these archival silences exist and currently (2022) seeks to redress these issues through collecting
non-paper-based materials and secondary sources related to the Clark family and their close associates, particularly Harrison
Post and Cora Sanders. Please see the Related Materials section for links to separate finding aids describing other relevant
collections at the Clark Library.
Large sections of the collection are what is termed an "artificial collection," a set of materials accumulated over time by
an archival institution, as opposed to a collection that is donated en masse to a library as a discrete unit. As such, this
collection will continue to grow over time, even though it is dedicated to the Pre-1934 history of the Clark Library and its
founder.
The Clark Library owns the property rights to its collections but does not hold the copyright to these materials and therefore
cannot grant or deny permission to use them. Researchers are responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials
they may wish to use, investigating the owner of the copyright, and obtaining permission for their intended publication or
other use. In all cases, you must cite the Clark Library as the source with the following credit line: The William Andrews
Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Collection development (Libraries) -- United States -- 20th century
Book collectors -- California -- 20th century
Library records -- United States -- 20th century
Acquisitions (Libraries) -- United States -- 20th century
Clark, William Andrews, 1839-1925
Sanders, Cora Edgerton
Clark, William Andrews, 1877-1934
Cowan, Robert Ernest
Clark, Alice McManus
Post, Harrison
Clark, Mabel Duffield Foster
Clark, William Andrews, 1903-1932