Preliminary Guide to the David Lavender - Fort Laramie Collection

Preliminary arrangement and description by E. Fields and D. Tambo

Department of Special Collections

Davidson Library

University of California, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Phone: (805) 893-3062

Fax: (805) 893-5749

Email: special@library.ucsb.edu

URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html

Preliminary Guide to the David Lavender - Fort Laramie Collection, ca. latter 1970s-early 1980s

Collection number: Wyles Mss 3

Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara

Contact Information:

Department of Special Collections
Davidson Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
Phone: (805) 893-3062
Fax: (805) 893-5749
Email: special@library.ucsb.edu
URL: http://www.library.ucsb.edu/speccoll/speccoll.html

Processed by:

E. Fields and D. Tambo

Date Completed:

23 September 2003

Encoded by:

David C. Gartrell

Descriptive Summary

Title: David Lavender - Fort Laramie Collection

Date (inclusive): ca. latter 1970s-early 1980s

Collection Number: Wyles Mss 3

Collector: Lavender, David, 1910-2003

Collection Size: .8 linear feet (2 document boxes)

Repository: University of California, Santa Barbara. Library. Dept. of Special Collections

Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Abstract: Research files from David Lavender, used in writing Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier (Official National Park Handbook, 1983). Mainly photocopies and typed notes of correspondence, diaries, reports and other documents from the latter 19th century.

Physical Location: Del Sur.

Language: English

Access Restrictions

None.

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

David Lavender - Fort Laramie Collection. Wyles Mss 3. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Acquisition Information

Gift of David Lavender, ca. 1983.

Biography

David Lavender, teacher, cowboy, and historian of the West, was born in Telluride, Colorado on Feb. 4, 1910. He attending Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania, graduated from Princeton University in 1931, and briefly attended Stanford Law School. His grandfather was chief justice of Colorado and his stepfather ranched and ran a stagecoach line. After his stepfather died during the Depression, he took over the family ranch and, when it failed, worked in a gold mine for a while. He moved to Denver, became a copywriter for an advertising agency, and later moved to California, where he became a screenwriter, providing plots for Westerns, and writing stories for Western pulp magazines, juvenile publications such as Boys' Life, and the Saturday Evening Post.

In 1939, Lavender moved to Ojai, California. His first book, a collection of autobiographical essays entitled One Man's West, came out in 1943. The same year he began teaching at the Thacher School, a boarding school in Ojai, where he remained on the faculty until 1970. Some of his students most vivid memories of their school years were of the camping trips that Lavender took them on.

In all, Lavender published more than 40 books on western themes ranging from fur trappers to railroad barons and early San Francisco bankers. He was known and praised for his meticulous research and story-telling abilities. He was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice and received many significant awards for his work, including two Guggenheim fellowships to study the fur trade and four medals from the Commonwealth Club of California for his histories of Colorado, the Pacific Northwest, early San Francisco, and the Lewis and Clark expedition. In 1997 the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado honored him with the its Wallace Stegner Award for sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the American West.

For many years David Lavender conducted research in and was a consultant to the William Wyles Collection (with extensive holdings in western history) at the UCSB Libraries Special Collections. He died in Ojai, California on April 19, 2003, at the age of 93.

*Information for this biography was drawn from Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, and New York Times obituaries, Apr. 2003, as well as a UCSB Libraries Soundings article, 1982.

Scope and Content of Collection

The collection contains David Lavender's research files, ca. latter 1970s-early 1980s, used in writing Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier (Official National Park Handbook, 1983). The dates listed in the container list, however, generally refer to the dates of the original sources that Lavender consulted.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into two series:

I. Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier , which contains research notes and copies of historical accounts, including correspondence, diaries, and other documents from the latter 19th century.
II. Historic Preservation, Restoration, Interpretation of Fort Laramie Historic Site Historic, which primarily contains recent studies and reports undertaken by the National Park Service.

The published version of Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier, as well as other works by Lavender, and works on Fort Laramie by other authors, have been cataloged separately and can be searched on Pegasus, the UCSB Libraries online catalog.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Lavender, David, 1910-2003

Fort Laramie (Wyo.)

Historic preservation--United States.

I. Fort Laramie and the Changing Frontier

Scope and Content Note

(historical accounts)

Box 1: 1

Abandonment of the Post, 1889-1890

Box 1: 2

Bibliography, ca. 1960s

Box 1: 3

"Capt. L.C. Easton's Report: Fort Laramie to Fort Leavenworth Via Republican River in 1849," 1953

Box 1: 4

Cemeteries, ca. 1869-1891

Box 1: 5

Commanding Officers - List, 1964

Box 1: 6

Correspondence (mainly reports to officers), 1849-1878

Box 1: 7

Crime and Punishment, ca. 1850-1899

Box 1: 8

Diary of Private Hartford G. Clark, G Troop, 6th Cavalry, Apr-Dec. 1891

Box 1: 9

Domestic Life, ca. 1850s-1880s

Box 1: 10

Easton, Lewis - "Need a Chuckle" (typescript copy, based on army records), 1860, 1875

Box 1: 11

"...Ft. Laramie as Seen by Travellers," 1832-1852

Box 1: 12

Government Supply and Support, ca. 1856-1875

Box 1: 13-14

Indian Wars, 1853-1887

Box 1: 15

Indians and Treaties, ca. 1850s-1890s

Box 2: 1

Medicine, 1860s-1880s

Box 2: 2

"Overland Journal of Charles Glass Gray," 1976

Box 2: 3

Recreation, 1860s-1880s

Box 2: 4

Soldier's Life in the Garrison, ca. 1840s-1870s

Box 2: 5

Sutler's Store, ca. 1850s-1880s

II. Historic Preservation, Restoration, Interpretation of Fort Laramie Historic Site

Box 2: 6

Cavalry Barracks, Furnishing Study - National Park Service, 1969

Box 2: 7

"Draft Development Concept Plan, Aug 1981"

Box 2: 8

"1874 Cavalry Barracks" - Historic Structures Report, 1970

Box 2: 9

"Furnishing Plan for Officer's Quarters 'F'," 1961

Box 2: 10

"Furnishing Plan for Old Bedlam" - National Park Service Report, 1964

Box 2: 11

"Furnishing Plan for the Post Surgeon's Quarters" - National Park Service Report, 1963

Box 2: 12

"A New Narrative for a New Historical Handbook," Merrill J. Mattes, 1977

Box 2: 13

Officers Quarters - Historic Structures Report, 1971

Box 2: 14

The Post Journal (historic site publication), n.d.

Box 2: 15

"Restored 1876 Old Bakery" - National Park Service Report, 1974

Box 2: 16

Social History of Fort Laramie (project documentation and guide), 1977