Library
celebrates Waters centennial
By Carolyn
Gonzales
 |
| Frank
Waters Room at Zimmerman Library. Photo by Carolyn Gonzales.
|
The UNM
General Library cant travel to Taos for the Frank Waters
Centennial July 25-28. The library can, however, open its doors
and invite Waters devotees in to explore the authors
books, manuscripts and photographs and check out Remembering
Frank Waters, an exhibit featuring articles by and about him
as well as photos and memorabilia.
By appointment,
visitors are invited to the second floor of Zimmerman Library
to see the Frank Waters Room.
Taos events
and the library exhibit coincide with the centennial of Waters
birth July 25, 1902. Waters, whose life spanned most of the
20th century, was nominated five times for the Nobel Prize in
Literature and authored more than 20 books, including fiction
titles The Man Who Killed the Deer, and The
Woman at Otowi Crossing.
Called
the grandfather of Southwestern literature, Waters also published
non-fiction works, such as Book of the Hopi. His
works focused on Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo and pre-Columbian influences.
 |
| Jan
Dodson Barnhart in the Waters Room with collection materials.
Photo by Carolyn Gonzales. |
The Frank
Waters Papers, housed in the librarys Center for Southwest
Research (CSWR), consists of 34 boxes of editorial and general
correspondence, lecture notes, video tapes as well as manuscripts
and photographs. His books have been incorporated into the centers
extensive holdings of Southwestern authors.
The UNM
General Library already had much of Waters collection in July,
1992 when library administration and CSWR staff were interested
in creating a reading room to honor a Southwest writer.
Dean Robert Migneault, Associate Dean Steve Rollins, John Grassham,
reference program director in the CSWR, and Jan Dodson Barnhart,
then associate director of the CSWR, traveled to the Waters
home in Arroyo Seco, near Taos, to meet with Frank and Barbara
Waters.
Now in
donor programming in the librarys Development Office,
Barnhart is the only member of the foursome still with the library.
She says, It was an opportunity to obtain the rest of
the collection. We had many of his books and other materials
we acquired in the 1980s, but in 1992, Waters was still a publishing
writer. We were interested in being able to provide the extent
of his collected work to researchers.
An index
to the Waters collection is available on the Online Archive
of New Mexico, accessible from the librarys web page at
http://elibrary.unm.edu/.
The Frank
Waters Room was dedicated on June 3, 1994, and included a reception
in the librarys exhibit area. Frank was more comfortable
in a wheelchair those days. As Barbara wheeled him out of the
elevator, his eyes sparkled when he saw his room with his books
on the shelves as well as the mandolin and his beloved pipe
collection, Barnhart recalls. Waters died exactly one
year later.
Today,
the reading room is a special access area for researchers interested
in studying from his collection. Adorning the room are many
items the library acquired with the books and manuscript materials.
A trastero,
a cabinet that is a copy of one in the Waters' residence, a
small chest Mabel Dodge Luhan gave to Waters;
a bust of Waters, three Indian rugs, a kachina, paintings and
more.
Many of
these items are included in the exhibit where they remain through
Aug. 30.
Of the
many researchers who have dug deeply into the collection, one,
Thomas Lyon, is a Waters biographer. Others include students
interested in literary analysis or Native American studies.
We
hope that those who participate in the Frank Waters Centennial
in Taos will visit the library collection to gain a deeper understanding
of the man and his work, says Barnhart.
To schedule
an appointment to visit the Frank Waters Reading Room, call
Kathlene Ferris at 277-7172.H