Hello everyone! This year has already brought MWDL a flurry of new collections of various shapes and sizes! Read on to learn more about the newest content.

Weber State University

Roy (UT) Buildings by Street contains images of businesses and homes in the Roy (UT) area taken by the Weber County (UT) Assessor’s Office for tax purposes. The photographs range in date from the 1920s to the 1970s. The photographs are organized by city and then plot number leading to an address. Not all streets or buildings are included.

1800 West 5600 So.

Utah Department of Cultural and Community Engagement

The Connell O’Donovan LGBT Utah History digital collection is a research collection pertaining to LGBTQ+ history in Utah, particularly from pre-Utah territory to the early 1990s. The collection includes various materials such as photographs, newspaper clippings, research notes, personal accounts, biographies, and other documents related to events, activism, and key figures in the movement. Connell O’Donovan uses this collection for historical research, aiming to illuminate the enduring presence of LGBTQ+ communities in Utah. His research also encompasses social and cultural studies, educational purposes, genealogical research, and archival preservation. The Connell O’Donovan LGBT Utah History research collection highlights the contributions of the Utah LGBTQ+ community to the Gay Rights movement, including those who faced prosecution for their sexuality.

2012 Utah LGBTQ Pride Flag

University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library

Marriott Library has shared a slew of manuscripts collections on a wide variety of topics! Two collections, the Federal Resources Corporation Papers and Superfund Records Center records touch on Utah as well as Western state mining history. The John W. Sugden and Ariel S. Ballif Jr. papers contain architecture and theater design drawings. Both Sugden and Ballif were educators at University of Utah during their careers. Two collections are both small publications: the University of Utah Bureau of Indian Services Publications and Rocky Mountain Woman. The Joseph Lafayette Rawlins papers contain materials collected by Rawlins’ daughter, Alta R. Jensen, for an autobiography of her father’s work on Utah statehood. Finally, the Utah Hairdressers Association Records consist of a scrapbook, meeting minutes, convention programs, newspaper clippings, and membership lists from 1933-47. Alternate names used were the Utah Association of Beauticians and the Utah Association of Better Beauty Shops.

Items of Interest

Coalition for Networked Information (CNI)’s December 2024 conference hosted a panel on the future of standardized rights statements (rightsstatements.org). As many of us use these statements in our digital collections, the presentation may be of interest.

Registration is now open for the 2025 Area Studies Teaching & Collections Symposium! This two-day event will take place May 7-8, 2025 at University of Utah’s Marriott Library (May 7) and Brigham Young University’s Lee Library (May 8).

MWDL is a virtual exhibitor for this year’s RootsTech conference (March 5-8, 2025). If you’re going, tell a friend about us and look for more genealogy content here soon.