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Zane Grey Rainbow Bridge photograph album, 1922

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Grey, Zane, 1872-1939.
Title
Zane Grey Rainbow Bridge photograph album
Dates
1922 (inclusive)
Quantity
1 box, (1.5 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_P0672
Summary
This photograph album contains over 400 images from Zane Grey’s 1922 Rainbow Bridge trip in Arizona and Utah
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, 2007-2008
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Biographical Note

Zane Grey (1872-1939) was a well-known writer who wrote Western novels during the early 20th century. He was born Pearl Zane Grey in Zanesville, Ohio. Before he was a writer, Zane Grey was a baseball player and a dentist. In 1905 he married Lina Roth, more commonly known as Dolly Grey. With her help, in 1910 Grey published his first best seller, The Heritage of the Desert. Zane Grey published other novels, articles, and short stories, with his most renowned being Riders of the Purple Sage.

Zane Grey was a lover of nature, fishing, and the West. He went on several trips to Northern Arizona, where the landscape inspired the scenes in his novels. In 1911, Zane Grey visited Rainbow Bridge for the first time, which provided the backdrop to the sequel, The Rainbow Trail. Zane grey made three other trips to Rainbow Bridge —1922, 1923, and 1929. This photo album records his April 1922 journey.

Zane Grey is also well known for his mistresses, whom often accompanied him on his travels. On the 1922 Rainbow Bridge trip, he brought Louise Anderson who was a native of Zanesville and the daughter of Nelly Dennis, one of Grey’s previous lovers.

Others who accompanied Grey on the Trip were Romer C. Grey, Grey’s younger brother; Dr. J. Auburn Wiborn and Mrs. J. Auborn Wiborn, Grey’s fishing partner who is also known as “the Lone Angler” and his wife; Lillian Wilhelm Robertson, Dolly Grey’s cousin who was the painter for the covers of many of Grey’s books; Lee Doyle, the son of Grey’s deceased Arizona guide, Al Doyle; George Takahashi, Grey’s cook; and John Wetherill, a trader at Kayenta trading post who, with the help of Native American guides, guided Grey’s party to Rainbow Bridge. Kayenta residents Jack King and Dean Allen, and Flagstaff resident Con Sullivan also accompanied Grey on this trip.

Grey’s party began their trip near Flagstaff and traveled towards Tsegi Canyon, passing the Red Lake Trading Post and the Little Colorado River. At Tsegi canyon, they took a detour to view the Betatakin cliff dwelling ruins, and then made their way East towards Kayenta Trading post, where they stayed for a few days to rest their horses and rearrange their supplies. From Kayenta, John Wetherill and few Navajo men guided the party towards Rainbow Bridge heading Northeast above Navajo Mountain, riding over the glass mountains and finally reaching Rainbow Bridge.

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Content Description

This photograph album contains 443 photographs of Zane Grey’s 1922 trip to Rainbow Bridge, capturing the landscape and places of Northern Arizona and Southern Utah including Tsegi Canyon, Navajo Mountain, the Kayenta Trading Post, Monument Valley, Moencopi Wash, Moki Village, and Black Mesa. Many of the photographs show Zane Grey’s riding party, especially focusing on Louise Andersen, Grey’s mistress at the time. Not only are these photographs useful for studying Zane Grey, but they also portray Native American life in the early 1920s, many depicting Navajo and Hopi individuals and their livestock and dwellings. These photographs also portray many natural and man-made wonders such as Rainbow Bridge, the world’s largest natural stone arch, and the Betatakin cliff dwellings. Zane Grey was the primary photographer on this trip, but there was another photographer with a separate camera who took pictures of Zane Grey posing in front of the desert landmarks.

For more detail about this particular trip, see: Zane Grey, “Down in the Desert,” Ladies’ Home Journal Vol. 41, no. 1 (January 1924): pgs 8-9; 40; 43-44; 46.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

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

Permission to publish material from the Zane Grey Rainbow Bridge photograph album must be obtained from the Special Collections Manuscript Curator and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Initial Citation: USU_P0672; Zane Grey Rainbow Bridge photograph album; Photograph Collections Special Collections and Archives. Utah State University Merrill-Cazier Library. Logan, Utah.

Following Citations:USU_P0672, USUSCA.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged by location

Processing Note

Processed in November and December of 2019

Acquisition Information

The Zane Grey Photograph Album was purchased from Back of Beyond books in 2019.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Finding aid/Register created by Alyson Griggs
2019

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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