Thank you, Butte!

I get a real thrill from opening books and magazines and seeing this:

Those of us who work in processing do not always know what the people who work more closely with authors are doing with the things we process. Yesterday I bought a copy of the new book, Political Hell-raiser, the Life and Times of Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, by Marc C. Johnson. On page 7, Johnson used this photograph from an Archives collection of men carrying the coffin of Frank Little in front of Duggan’s mortuary:

PH366.005

He also included this statement in his Acknowledgements:

 

Also yesterday, I got around to opening the Spring, 2019 issue of Montana, the Magazine of Western History, which is published by the Montana Historical Society. It contains an article by Thomas Spencer, Roosevelt’s “Company” Man, the Political Career of J. Bruce Kremer. These are some of the photographs from the C. Owen Smithers Collection that Spencer chose to use in his article:

FDR touring Butte with Senator Thomas Walsh, 1932. Smithers.32.029.10

FDR standing on the steps of the Kelley mansion, 1932. Smithers.32.057.01

 

Con Kelley, John D. Ryan, J. Bruce Kremer, and William A. Clark, 1920. Smithers.47.015.01

Of course, the magazine used a clean copy that Smithers was able to make from this badly-damaged glass negative.

 

Every morning when I walk into my workspace, I see this sign:

It is left over from a celebration held upon the completion of the renovation of the Butte-Silver Bow Public Archives building. It is in recognition of the support of the people of Butte for the bond issue that was required for the renovations to be possible. The building is beautiful. We are so grateful to get to work here in this wonderful, functional place. The people of Butte also supported and helped make possible the purchase and processing of the C. Owen Smithers Collection. This support has made working with authors like these much easier for the staff, and the building provides a space that makes it possible for us to invite authors like Marc C. Johnson to present their work as part of the Brown Bag lunch series here at the Archives. Johnson will be here at noon on May 8^th to speak and to sign his books!

Thank you, Butte!

–Harriet

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