University of Utah Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center records, 1976-2005

The Humanities Center was created at the University of Utah in 1988 with the support of the College of Humanities and a grant from the George S. and Dolores Dore Eccles Foundation. Larry Gerlach was the Humanities Center's Director from its beginning until 1990 when Lowell M. Durham, Jr. and Patricia Hanna took over as Co-Directors. Professor Hanna served in that position until 1991 when she became the Dean of the College of Humanities. In 1995 the Humanities Center received a $1.5 million gift from the O.C. Tanner Co and was renamed the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center. Lowell M. Durham, Jr. served as Director until his death in 1997. Holly V. Campbell was Director from 1998 until 2000.

Obert Tanner and the O.C. Tanner Co. also funded the Tanner Lectures on Human Values. This lectures series was established in 1978 at the six major U.S. and English universities of Clare Hall, Cambridge, Harvard, Michigan, Brasenose College, Oxford, Stanford, and Utah. Temporary lectureships were also granted to other universities on an annual basis. The lectures were concerned with human values and behaviors in the areas of biology, psychology, history, sociology, intellect, morality, aesthetics, and religion. Sterling McMurrin was the director of the Tanner Lectures Series from its inception until 1987 when Grethe B. Peterson was appointed director.