Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Dyson, Verne
- Abstract:
- Verne Dyson (1879- ) was a feature writer for the Kansas City Star (1907), and joined the staff of the Los Angeles Times as manager of the Pasadena news bureau and Sunday editor. At the end of World War I, he went to Shanghai, China to become dean of Williams College. In 1921, he became professor of English and Chinese history at the University of the Philippines in Manila and helped to found the Philippine Academy of Social Sciences. The collection consists of correspondence, research notes, unpublished manuscripts, books, pamphlets, clippings, maps, articles, scrapbooks, student compositions, photographs, postcards, and original prints of Verne Dyson, American journalist, teacher and author.
- Extent:
- 9.0 Linear Feet (18 boxes)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Verne Dyson papers (Collection 804). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Collection consists of correspondence, research notes, unpublished manuscripts, books, pamphlets, clippings, maps, articles, scrapbooks, student compositions, photographs, postcards, and original prints of Verne Dyson, American journalist, teacher and author. Most of the papers relate to the history of China and the Philippines. Manuscripts include Ancient China; Festive China; China, Russia, and Japan in Manchuria, The Cultural Development of the Philippines, Canton, and The Life of Los Angeles, the City of the Century.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Dyson was born in 1879 in Calloway County, Missouri; graduated from Central College in 1905; became the feature writer for the Kansas City Star in 1907; in the same year he joined the staff of the Los Angeles Times as manager of the Pasadena news bureau and Sunday editor; wrote a history of Los Angeles; after the end of World War I, he went to Shanghai, China to become dean of Williams College; in 1921 he became professor of English and Chinese history at the University of the Philippines in Manila and helped to found the Philippine Academy of Social Sciences; appointed director of the Chinese Studies Institute in 1933; from 1940-61 he served as curator of the Walt Whitman Museum at Huntington, New York; founded the Brentwood, New York Bulletin, and the Walt Whitman Quarterly; retired to Los Angeles in 1961; published works include the novel Black Cloth (1925), Forgotten Tales of Ancient China (1934), and Whitmanland: West Hills Memories of the Poet and His Ancestors (1960).
Verne Dyson was born in Calloway County, Missouri, in 1879. He spent his youth and early manhood in Missouri, Clayton, New Mexico, and graduated from West Denver High School in 1900. He attended Central College, Missouri, and graduated from that institution in 1905. He entered the career of journalism and in 1907 became the feature writer for the Kansas City Star.
In 1907 Mr. Dyson joined the staff of the Los Angeles Times as manager of the Pasadena News Bureau and Sunday Editor. At this time he became interested in California history and associated himself with George W. Hazard in the Hazard Historical Association to produce a history of the Los Angeles region. When George Hazard died in 1914, Dyson purchased his extensive collection of historical materials from the Hazard family and determined to complete the history of Los Angeles. Sustained by his collecting proclivities, the Collection grew to over ten thousand items. He continued his research for the history of Los Angeles and completed a manuscript which is part of this collection.
At the close of the first World War, Dyson went to Shanghai, China, to become Dean of Williams College. In 1921 he became professor of English and Chinese history at the University of the Philippines in Manila and helped to found the Philippine Academy of Social Sciences there. He received the appointment of Director of the Chinese Studies Institute in 1933, and from 1940 to 1961 he served as Curator of the Walt Whitman Museum at Huntington, Long Island, New York. While engaged in this work, he also founded the Brentwood, New York Bulletin and the Walt Whitman Quarterly. Since 1961 Mr. Dyson has been retired and living in Los Angeles.
Verne Dyson is the author of a number of books and many articles. His literary papers described in this register include his correspondence, research notes and unpublished manuscripts as well as photographs and other related printed matter which he collected in connection with his research interests.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Manuscripts Division staff, December 1963.
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.
- Arrangement:
-
Arranged in the following series:
- Books by Dyson (Box 1).
- Manuscripts by Dyson (Boxes 1-5, 18).
- Research material on China (Boxes 6-9).
- Material concerning Chinese famine relief (Box 10).
- Compositions by Chinese students, 1922 (Box 10).
- Miscellaneous material concerning China, the Institute of Pacific Relations, and the Philippine Islands (Boxes 11-14).
- Chinese pictures collected by Dyson (Boxes 15-17).
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the physical objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Verne Dyson papers (Collection 804). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
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A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988