Carl Parcher Russell Papers, 1920-1967

Dr. Carl Parcher Russell was devoted to the development and stimulation of interest in and encouragement of a more complete understanding of life on the western frontier from exploration through early national expansion. This collection, the product of his scholarship and technical knowledge, may now be drawn upon by scholars for research and interpretation of this significant and romantic period in Western United States history.

The Russell papers include personal, professional, and office correspondence that pertain to his scholarly interests. The bulk of the collection is his assembled western frontier materials for the period 1804-1843. All are the working papers of an acclaimed scholar in the fields of western fur trade, firearms, frontier artifacts, and frontiersmen.

Public relations were continually a part of Russell's employment in the National Park Service. The preparation of publishable essays and presentation of public lectures were always an important part of his life. These activities required work in many libraries and museums all over the North American continent and in Europe.

Dr. Russell's consuming interest was the material and procedures of the trappers and early traders. His field notes and clever sketches alone, often based on elusive diaries and manuscripts, rare books, and period merchandise catalogs (firearms, traps, tools, etc.) or concerning historic three-dimensional objects, fill 45 loose-leaf notebooks. His research supported numerous published essays and his three monographs: "One Hundred Years in Yosemite"; "Guns on the Early Frontiers"; and "Firearms, Traps, and Tools of the Mountain Men". At the time of his death he had collected and organized illustrations and outlined chapters for an additional monograph: "Camps, Camp Life and Procedures of the Mountain Men".

Dr. Russell's study of the fur trade and the mountain men was indispensable in his assignments in the National Park Service. He used his research for technical reports, lectures, radio scripts, and planning exhibits, illustrations, and interpretative information and programs for historical museums. The collection reflects Russell's involvement in conservation controversies, park management, National Park Service training programs, and the history of the National Park Service and its personnel.

The western overland fur trade materials are separated from those pertaining to Russell's other scholarly activities in the National Park Service. This division is the basis for the arrangement of the collection in two series: 1. Fur Trade and Frontier and 2. National Park Service.

Series 1: Fur Trade and Frontier

1.1: Correspondence

1.2: Essays and Manuscripts

1.3: Annotated Bibliography

1.4: Merchandise Catalogs

1.5: Illustrations

1.6: Newspapers

1.7: Writings of Carl Parcher Russell

1.7.1. Books

1.7.1.1: Preliminary Matters

1.7.1.2: Guns on the Early Frontiers; a History of Firearms from Colonial Times Through the Years of the Western Fur Trade

1.7.1.3: Firearms, Traps and Tools of the Mountain Men

1.7.1.4: Camps, Camp Life and Procedures of the Mountain Men

1.7.2: Essays

1.7.3: Notes

1.7.4: Projects

1.8: Three-Dimensional Objects

Series 2: National Park Service

2.1: Correspondence, 1921-1965

2.2: Biographies

2.3: Essays and Documents

2.4: Writing of Carl Parcher Russell

2.4.1: One Hundred Years in Yosemite; the Story of a Great Park and Its Friends

2.4.2: Essays, speeches, radio scripts, etc.

The term "general" designates materials either not agreeing specifically with the subjects or that include more than one topic.