Archives West Finding Aid

"Harold Stanley 'Stan' Sanders (1927-2008) was a rockhound, numismatist, philatelist, tropical fish fancier, deep-sea fisherman, bull rider, deltiologist, antique bottle collector and race car driver to name a few of his many and varied passions and pursuits. Sanders founded his own business, with his wife Ellie, in 1966, Priced-Rite Trophy, that they ran successfully for many years. His Stans Sanders Window Shade basketball team won 121 straight games, a record that still stands, and his Priced-Rite Trophy slow pitch softball team won many championships. He was also a World War II veteran and served his country honorably." (Biographical note quoted from Sander's obituary published in the Salt Lake Tribune, August 28, 2008.)

Sanders served in the United States Army from 1945-1947 in Company A 87th Infantry Training Battalion and Company B 85th Signal Operators Battalion. He trained in Camp Roberts, California, and was stationed primarily in Korea from 1946 to 1947. The collection depicts the interwar period between the 1945 end of World War II and the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950, particularly the early years of the Cold War during the Soviet and United States occupation of northern and southern Korea immediately prior to the 1948 establishment of the separate governments of North Korea and South Korea. Sanders provided detailed identification of fellow soldiers, and the images provide insight into the daily lives of the soldiers, particularly their leisure pursuits, which include hunting, fishing, and golfing. The collection also depicts tourist activities taken by the soldiers in Korea, where they were stationed, and in Japan; these include visits to Korean tourist destionations as well as snapshots of citizens and street scenes in Seoul and Tokyo. (Summarized from information provided by donor)

In addition to the personal photographs of Sanders’ military service, the collection contains prints and negatives related to Utah history collected by Sanders. Areas of focus include Saltair, the resort and amusement park located on the Great Salt Lake and marketed nationally as the “Coney Island of the West,” with a concentration of images of the attractions that Saltair built in the 1910s prior to the 1925 fire that destroyed the first iteration of this resort. Also included are print copies and negatives of historic Utah breweries and saloons. There are also prints depicting the early Jewish settlers to Salt Lake City, the Auerbach family, and their department store, which opened in 1864 and closed in 1979. The collection contains portraits of three generations of the Auerbach family as well as commercial photographs taken of the exterior and interior of the business as it moved through four locations in downtown Salt Lake City between 1864 and the 1930s.