UUM_P1515.xml Phyllis Barber photograph collection Barber (Phyllis) photograph collection Finding aid created by Claire A. Kempa. J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections

2022 (last modified: 2025)
295 South 1500 East Salt Lake City, Utah 84112 Business Number: 801-581-8863 special@library.utah.edu https://lib.utah.edu/collections/special-collections/index.php
This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2025-12-18. Finding aid written in English. Finding aid based on DACS (Describing Archives: A Content Standard), 2nd Edition. J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections Phyllis Barber photograph collection Barber, Phyllis, 1943- Baumann, Ann P1515 45 photographic prints 1 box 1984-2000 Phyllis Barber (1943-) is an American author known for her memoirs; she has also written novels, essays, and books for young readers. This colleciton contains photographs of Barber's family and friends as well as images related to her career as a writer. English

Phyllis Nelson Barber (1943-) was born in Henderson, Nevada, on May 11, 1943. She was raised in Boulder City and Las Vegas Nevada. Barber attended Brigham Young University from 1961 to 1964, where she studied piano. There, she met and married David H. Barber in 1964; together, they had four sons. Phyllis Barber divorced from David Barber in 1996. She married William "Bill" Traeger in 2000; the couple divorced in 2002 and remarried in 2010, whereupon they settled in Park City, Utah.

After marriage, the Barbers moved to Palo Alto, California, while David Barber pursued a law degree at Stanford. In California, Phyllis Barber continued her studies, receiving a BA in Music from San Jose State in 1967. Barber taught and performed music while living in California; however, she decided that working as a concert pianist was not a viable career. The Barbers subsequently lived in Colorado and Utah, where Phyllis participated in various writing workshops and took creative writing courses at the University of Utah. During this time, she began writing for Utah Holiday magazine in Salt Lake City.

In 1984, Barber received an MFA in writing from Vermont College. The same year, she co-founded the annual conference Writers at Work in Park City, Utah. In addition to publishing novels, short stories, articles, essays, and a book for young readers, Barber served on the faculty of Vermont College, where she led numerous writing workshops and continuing education classes. She has received numerous awards for both teaching and writing. Barber is known for her cycle of memoirs, which began in 1991 with How I got Cultured: A Nevada Memoir. Raised a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Barber's fiction and nonfiction deal with themes of organized religion and spirituality; her work also engages with the history, environment, and culture of the American West.

The Phyllis Barber photograph collection consists of 1 box containing 45 black and white and color photograph prints depicting Barber's family and friends and documenting her career as a writer. The collection includes images of illustrations by Ann Baumann from Barber's children's book Legs, The Story of a Giraffe (1991); photographs of the Writers at Work Conference in Park City, Utah, in 1984 and 1985; and images sent in Barber's correspondence with Sandy Ellsworth from 1986 to 1990.

Arranged by subject

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It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Phyllis Barber photograph collection must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator.

Collection Name, Collection Number, Box Number, Folder Number. Special Collections, J. Willard Marriott Library, The University of Utah.

Donated by Phyllis Barber in 2007.

Processed by Special Collections staff.

See also the Phyllis Barber papers (ACCN 0369) in the Manuscripts Division of Special Collections.

Forms part of the Aileen H. Clyde 20th Century Women's Legacy Archives.

 Barber, Phyllis, 1943---Family--Photographs Women authors, American--West (U.S.)--Photographs Authors, American--Congresses--Photographs Illustrated children's books--Photographs Photographs black-and-white photographs color photographs Family and Friends 1 1 Ann Baumann Illustrations for children's book 1 2 Writers at Work Conference, 1984-1985 1 3 Correspondence with Sandy Ellsworth, 1986-1990 1 4