Valeen T. Avery Papers
COLL MSS 316
Biographical Note:
Valeen Tippetts Avery was born on December 22, 1936 in Great Falls, Montana. After earning her Bachelor of Arts in foreign languages from Rocky Mountain College in 1959, she moved East, working various jobs in New York City, North Carolina, and Germany. Avery returned to the West in 1972 to produce and direct a weekly educational television program at KOAI TV in Flagstaff, Arizona. After six years with KOAI, she returned to school, earning her Master of Arts in history from Northern Arizona University in 1981. Avery went on to get her PhD at NAU in 1983, specializing in American social and intellectual history. NAU promptly hired her in 1984 as an assistant professor and the Director for the Center of Colorado Plateau Studies. She earned tenure and promotion to associate professor in 1990, and gave up her role at the Center of Colorado Plateau Studies two years later. Avery became a full professor in 1998, and worked in that capacity until her retirement in 2005. She was married to Charles C. Avery in 1961, with whom she had four children before their divorce in 1986. In 1996 she married colleague and English professor Bryan Short. Avery died unexpectedly on April 7, 2006, in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Avery was a prolific writer, authoring two books and numerous articles and book reviews. She is perhaps best known for her work on Mormon Enigma: Emma Hale Smith, a controversial book she co-authored with Linda Newell, first published in 1984. From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet, a biography of David H. Smith, was published in 1999. Both won the Evans Award for Best Western Biography. She was also a respected leader and teacher, serving as president of the Mormon History Association in 1987 and exciting countless students with her enthusiastic teaching style. In 2001, she was the Homecoming Dedicatee at NAU, chosen by a vote of students, staff and faculty.
Provenance Note:
The materials in this collection were donated to USU Special Collections in 2006 by the children of Valeen T. Avery.
Scope & Content Note:
This collection contains the papers of Valeen T. Avery and spans the period of 1975-2005. It is organized in various broad categories, and individual folders are largely labeled as they were in Avery’s original files. The first group of boxes contains subject files, research files, and corresponding file cards, much of which Avery used to write her two books. Other items include: materials related to Avery’s books, Avery’s writings, class notes, faculty and student evaluations, conference and lecture material, material related to the Mormon History Association, correspondence, miscellaneous articles and essays, and general office files.
Inventory:
Box 1: Subject Files – American West/Colorado Plateau
Fd 1: 20th Century Indians
Fd 2: Anasazi – Prehistoric Indians
Fd 3: Arizona History
Fd 4: Arizona Indians
Fd 5: Arizona Strip
Fd 6: Awatovi
Fd 7: Aztecs
Fd 8: Aztec Calendar
Fd 9: Black Legend
Fd 10: CCC Camps – Arizona
Fd 11: Chinese in California
Fd 12: Platt Cline
Fd 13: Coronado
Fd 14: Dominguez and Escalante
Fd 15: El Tovar
Box 2: Subject Files – American West/Colorado Plateau
Fd 1: Flagstaff, Arizona
Fd 2: Fur Traders
Fd 3: Geography – Geology
Fd 4: Henry Giclas
Fd 5: Gold Rush
Fd 6: Grand Canyon – Gale Burak Papers (1)
Fd 7: Grand Canyon – Gale Burak Papers (2)
Fd 8: Hermit of the Superstitions
Fd 9: Home of the Truth – Canyonlands
Fd 10: Hoover Dam
Fd 11: Japanese Camps
Fd 12: Eusebio Francisco Kino
Box 3: Subject Files – American West/Colorado Plateau
Fd 1: Lake Powell, Lee’s Ferry Area
Fd 2: Lee’s Ferry
Fd 3: Legacy of the Middle Ages in the American West
Fd 4: Glen Leonard, Mexican Cession States – Maps
Fd 5: Maps
Fd 6: Meteor Crater Project – Frank Lloyd Wright
Fd 7: Mexican War
Fd 8: Montana History
Fd 9: Outlaws
Fd 10: Alfred Packer
Fd 11: Palatkwapi Trail
Fd 12: Power Generation
Fd 13: Rainbow Bridge
Fd 14: Ranching and Cowboys
Fd 15: Salt Trail
Fd 16: Separation Canyon
Fd 17: Skeleton, or Skull Cave by Roosevelt Lake
Fd 18: Spanish on the Colorado Plateau
Box 4: Subject Files – American West/Colorado Plateau
Fd 1: Charles H. Spencer
Fd 2: Surveys Before Civil War
Fd 3: Surveys After Civil War
Fd 4: Gretchen and Jimmy Swinnerton
Fd 5: Traders and Visitors: Fred Harvey Company
Fd 6: Vigilantes – Rodda
Fd 7: Walnut Grove Hassayampa
Fd 8: Water Use on the Colorado River
Fd 9: Winkler-Hall Photos
Fd 10: Yuma Prison
Fd 11: Zane Grey (1)
Fd 12: Zane Grey (2)
Box 5: Subject Files – Mormons
Fd 1: Anabaptists and Mormons
Fd 2: Bombing – October 1985
Fd 3: Coconino County
Fd 4: Colorado City, 1998-2000
Fd 5: Doctrinal Issues
Fd 6: Doug Jackson, Lee’s Ferry
Fd 7: Dunn, Howlands, and Mormons
Fd 8: Fort Moroni
Fd 9: Ghost Dance (Mormon Influence)
Fd 10: Historians vs. Apostles
Fd 11: Hoffman Forgeries and Bombings
Fd 12: Johnsons at Lee’s Ferry
Fd 13: Warren Johnson, Lee’s Ferry
Fd 14: Alex Joseph Family
Fd 15: Kirtland, Ohio
Fd 16: Emma Batchelor Lee
Fd 17: Letters Written Among DeVoto, Morgan, and Brooks
Box 6: Subject Files – Mormons
Fd 1: Miscellaneous Information about Mormonism
Fd 2: Modern Polygamy
Fd 3: Mormon History – Beginning to Kirtland
Fd 4: Mormon History – 1831-1838
Fd 5: Mormon History – 1839-1844
Fd 6: Mormons and Indian Relocation
Fd 7: Mormons on Colorado Plateau
Fd 8: The Mormon Miracle Pageant
Fd 9: Mountain Meadows Massacre
Fd 10: Passey Family
Fd 11: Polygamy
Fd 12: Reorganized Church of Latter-Day Saints
Fd 13: Signature Rocks, Mormon-Hopi Honeymoon Trail
Fd 14: Souvenirs from Nauvoo, Illinois, and Independence, Missouri
Fd 15: Women and Mormonism
Box 7: Subject Files – Women
Fd 1: 1890s
Fd 2: 1920s
Fd 3: 1930s
Fd 4: 1950s
Fd 5: 1960s & 1970s
Fd 6: Abortion
Fd 7: Abigail Adams
Fd 8: Women in Advertising
Fd 9: Susan B. Anthony
Fd 10: Army Wives
Fd 11: Eliza Billings
Fd 12: Birth Control
Fd 13: Blackstone’s Law
Fd 14: Elizabeth Blackwell
Fd 15: Lizzie Borden
Fd 16: Anne Bradstreet
Fd 17: Brown v. Board of Education
Box 8: Subject Files – Women
Fd 1: Civil War Period
Fd 2: Colonial Childbirth
Fd 3: Colonial Women
Fd 4: “Current Best Chance” (Last Lecture)
Fd 5: Amelia Earhart
Fd 6: Education
Fd 7: The Feminist Movement
Fd 8: Betty Friedan
Fd 9: “Fun Stuff” about Women
Fd 10: Girl Talk
Fd 11: Godey’s Lady’s Book
Fd 12: Sarah Hale
Fd 13: Human Labor/Human Bondage
Fd 14: Anne Hutchinson
Fd 15: Introduction to Women’s History
Fd 16: Women in Mining Camps
Fd 17: Minority Women
Fd 18: Mormon Polygamy
Box 9: Subject Files – Women
Fd 1: Nashoba-Wright Community
Fd 2: Bethenia Owens-Adair
Fd 3: Eliza Lucas Pinckney
Fd 4: Post-Revolution Community
Fd 5: Prostitution
Fd 6: Puritans and Sex
Fd 7: Reform, 1800-1860
Fd 8: Revolutionary War Period
Fd 9: Eleanor Roosevelt
Fd 10: Deborah Sampson-Gannett
Fd 11: Margaret Sanger
Fd 12: “The Second Shift”
Fd 13: Seneca Falls, 1848
Fd 14: Shakers and Oneida
Fd 15: Elizabeth Cody Stanton
Fd 16: Lucy Stone
Box 10: Subject Files – Women
Fd 1: Mary Taylor
Fd 2: Voting Rights
Fd 3: Mercy Otis Warren
Fd 4: Phillis Wheatly
Fd 5: Witchcraft
Fd 6: Victoria Woodhull
Fd 7: Women in the West
Fd 8: Women at Work, 1860-1920
Fd 9: Women’s Vote – Arizona
Fd 10: World War II
Box 11: Research Files (by Subject)
Fd 1: Val’s Yellow Notepads – LDS Archives, First Trip
Fd 2: “Ancestry and Posterity of Joseph Smith and Emma Hale” by Audentia Smith Anderson
Fd 3: John C. Bennett
Fd 4: William Clayton
Fd 5: Carlin Letters
Fd 6: Agnes Smith, Ina Coolbrith, Mary Bailey
Fd 7: Oliver Cowdery Letters
Fd 8: “An Overview of the Introduction of Eternal Marriage…” by Andrew F. Ehat
Fd 9: Forgery and Fraud
Fd 10: Garments and Endowments
Fd 11: Arvet L. Hale Journal
Fd 12: Historical Record, Affidavits
Fd 13: Diary of William Huntington
Fd 14: Emma Smith’s Hymnals
Box 12: Research Files (by Subject)
Fd 1: Jane Elizabeth James
Fd 2: Juvenile Instructor
Fd 3: Kane Papers
Fd 4: Letter to First Presidency about Emma Smith, September 17, 1978
Fd 5: William Law, Joseph Jackson
Fd 6: Sarah Leavitt History
Fd 7: Mary Elizabeth Lightner
Fd 8: Mormonism and Masonry
Fd 9: Eliza R. Snow
Fd 10: Journal of Wandle Mace
Fd 11: William E. Marks
Fd 12: Letters of Massachusetts Mormons, Sarah Scott and Martha Haven, 1843-1848
Fd 13: Mormonism Unvailed by E.D. Howe
Fd 14: Mountain Meadows Massacre
Box 13: Research Files (by Subject)
Fd 1: Nauvoo Buildings – Ken Stobaugh
Fd 2: Nauvoo Expositor
Fd 3: David Pettigrew
Fd 4: Photos
Fd 5: Emma’s Connection With the Revised Translation of the Bible
Fd 6: Joseph Lee Robinson Journal
Fd 7: A Record of the Organization and Proceedings of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo
Fd 8: Relief Society
Fd 9: Porter Rockwell
Fd 10: David Smith
Fd 11: Jan Shipps on Lucy Mack Smith
Fd 12: Brief Life Sketches of Emma
Fd 13: Emma Hale Smith – Patriarchal Blessing
Fd 14: Vida E. Smith – Biography of Alexander Hale Smith
Box 14: Research Files (by Subject)
Fd 1: James J. Strang
Fd 2: New York Sun Episode
Fd 3: Tar and Feathering – John Johnson Home
Fd 4: Mercy Rachael Thompson
Fd 5: Godbeite Protest
Fd 6: George Whitaker Journal, 1820-1846
Fd 7: Wives of Joseph Smith
Fd 8: Times and Seasons
Fd 9: Women’s Accounts
Fd 10: Wilford Woodruff – Tom Alexander Articles
Fd 11: Ileen Ann Waspe Thesis
Fd 12: Women’s Exponent
Fd 13: Brigham Young
Fd 14: Manuscripts – Emma and Her Sisters – The Religious Life of Women in Kirtland
Box 15: Research Files
Fd 1: Research Notes, RLDS Archive, 1995
Fd 2: Huntington Library, California
Fd 3: Source Materials
Fd 4: Research Queries Sent
Box 16: Research Files (by Author)
Fd 1: Thomas Alexander
Fd 2: James B. Allen
Fd 3: Leonard J. Arrington
Fd 4: Raymond T. Bailey
Fd 5: Maureen Ursenbach Beecher
Fd 6: Gary J. Bergera
Fd 7: Ray Allen Billington
Fd 8: Davis Bitton
Fd 9: A.R. Blair
Fd 10: Alma Blair
Fd 11: Madelon Brunson
Fd 12: Richard L. Bushman
Fd 13: Kate B. Carter
Fd 14: Vesta Crawford Notes
Fd 15: Vesta Crawford Manuscript
Fd 16: George T.M. Davis
Fd 17: Reed C. Durham, Jr.
Fd 18: Eugene England
Box 17: Research Files (by Author)
Fd 1: Ronald K. Esplin
Fd 2: Robert Flanders
Fd 3: Larry Foster
Fd 4: Thomas Geoghean
Fd 5: S.H. Goodwin
Fd 6: Norma Derry Hiles
Fd 7: Marvin S. Hill
Fd 8: Richard P. Howard
Fd 9: Robert H. Hullinger
Fd 10: Stanley S. Ivins
Fd 11: Dean C. Jessee
Fd 12: Sonia Johnson
Fd 13: Roger R. Keller
Fd 14: Stanley B. Kimball
Fd 15: T. Edgar Lyon
Fd 16: Eudocia Baldwin Marsh
Fd 17: Robert J. Matthews
Fd 18: Lavina Fielding Anderson
Fd 19: Cecil McGavin
Fd 20: Stirling McMurrin
Fd 21: Linda Newell
Box 18: Research Files (by Author)
Fd 1: Hugh Nibley
Fd 2: Gary Novack and Louis Midgley
Fd 3: Dallin Oaks
Fd 4: Lee Ann Packer
Fd 5: Max H. Parkin