A Guide to the Arthur H. Clark Company Papers, 1930-1942

Historical Note

In 1902, Arthur H. Clark (1868-1951) founded a press in Cleveland, Ohio, that published books and journals examining the discovery and development of the American West. Clark’s company gained renown as the chief press for producing scholarship and publishing rare books on American Western historical and cultural subjects. In 1930, he moved his company west, as well, to Glendale, California. That same year, Clark decided to create the Southwest Historical Series, which would make available important historical journals relating to the southwestern frontier between 1821 and 1890, and consisted of unpublished manuscripts and documents from rare contemporary newspapers and periodicals, that would shed light on a number of important phases in southwestern history. Examples of subjects include the Santa Fe trail and trade; prairie life and travel; the military operations of Kearny and Doniphan during Mexican war; the gold rush to California in 1849; and Texas cattle trails and trade. Clark induced Ralph P. Bieber (1894-1981), an expert on overland travel to the Southwest and professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to edit the Southwest Historical Series. From 1930 to 1943, the series produced 12 volumes with an analytical index to the last volume. In July 2006, the University of Oklahoma Press acquired the Arthur H. Clark Company as an imprint which continues to publish on the subject of the American West.

Source:

Grivas, Theodore. "The Arthur H. Clark Company: A Review of Sixty Years of Service, 1902-1962. "Journal of the Southwest 5 (1936): 63-78.

Scope and Contents

The Arthur H. Clark Company Papers, 1930-1942, document the editing and publication process of the Southwest Historical Series publications. Unpublished manuscripts edited by Ralph P. Bieber include: Adventures in the Santa Fe Trade, 1844-1847; Eugene Bandel’s Frontier Life in the Army, 1854-1861; George Rutledge Gibson’s Journal of a Soldier under Kearny and Doniphan, 1846-1847; Marching with the Army of the West, 1846-1848, by Abraham R. Johnson, Marcellus B. Edwards, and Philip G. Ferguson. Additionally, the collection contains Southern Trails to California in 1849; Lewis H. Garrad’s Wha-to-yah and the Taos Trail, 1846-1848; Exploring Southwestern Trails, 1846-1854, comprised of the journals of Philip St. George Cooke, William H.C. whiting, and Francois Xavier Aubry; and Joseph G. McCoy’s Historic Sketches of the Cattle Trade of the West and Southwest. Unpublished manuscripts edited by LeRoy R. Hafen of the State Historical Society of Colorado are included, such as Pike’s Peak Gold Rush Guidebooks of 1859, Colorado Gold Rush, Contemporary Letters and Reports, 1858-1859; and Overland Routes to the Gold Fields, 1859. Furthermore, photographs, maps, and illustrations used in the publications of the Southwest Historical Series are associated with the collection.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research use.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Arthur H. Clark Company Papers, 1930-1942, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin.

Processing Information

This collection was processed by Sara Clark, February 1985.

Basic processing and cataloging of this collection was supported with funds from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) for the Briscoe Center’s "History Revealed: Bringing Collections to Light" project, 2009-2011.

Detailed Description of the Papers