Artemus Ward papers, 1860-1880

Charles Farrar Browne was born in Waterford, Maine on April 26, 1834. His initial professional endeavor was that of a printer working for a number of newpapers and periodicals in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Ohio. The Cleveland, Ohio "Plain Dealer" employed him in 1858 as a writer who wrote fictional and humorous accounts of a peregrinating showman named "Artemus Ward." While in Cleveland, Ward commenced to etablish a national and international reputation as a first rate humorist. His articles appeared in New York's Vanity Fair and London's Punch. Subsequently, Ward moved to New York City where Vanity Fair hired him as a columnist. Some of Ward's columns were reproduced in an 1866 work entitled "Artemus Ward: His Book." One of the chapters in this book is designated as "A Visit to Brigham Young" and can be accessed in box 1, folder 10. A copy of this book can be found in the Marriott Library's Special Collections' stacks.

In the 1860's Ward traveled throughout parts of the United States delivering humorous lectures, the most popular of which was called "The Babes in the Wood." Two of his best known admirers were President Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. Preceding the reading of the "Proclamation Emancipation" to his cabinet, Lincoln read aloud an Artemus Ward story. One of the locales to which Ward sojourned was Salt Lake City, Utah. His experience in Salt Lake City prompted him to compose a lecture which became his favorite presentation during the remainder of his short life. The lecture was named "Artemus Ward among the Mormons." The program of this lecture is located in box 1, folder 8. The apex of his entertaining career occurred when he visited London in 1866. A most appreciative audience thoroughly enjoyed the lecture on the Mormons as well as his articles which were published in Punch. After a bout with consumption, Artemus Ward died in Southampton on March 6, 1867.