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Mahonri M. Young papers

 Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: MSS 4

Scope and Contents

Correspondence, sketchbooks, research files, autobiographical files, scrapbooks, and news clippings. Also includes diaries, address and memorandum books, and financial records. Most letters were exchanged with family members and close friends. Primary correspondents included his son, Mahonri Sharp Young; his first wife, Cecilia Sharp Young; and Mary Lightfoot Tarleton, whom he met in Paris after Cecilia died in 1917. Research files include extensive information on other artists.

Dates

  • 1870-1957

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Original sketchbooks restricted. Photocopies of some volumes available for patron use.

Conditions Governing Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances. Permission to publish material from Mahonri M. Young Papers must be obtained from the Supervisor of Reference Services and/or the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Board of Curators.

Biographical History

Mahonri Mackintosh Young (1877-1957) was an American artist and sculptor.

Mahonri Mackintosh Young was born on August 9, 1877 in Salt Lake City, Utah to Mahonri Moriancumer Young and Agnes Mackintosh. He was a grandson of Brigham Young. He developed a deep interest in art from an early age, and quit his formal schooling to pursue art studies. He studied at the Académie Julian in Paris from 1901-1905. Due to financial troubles, he returned to Salt Lake City. He married Cecilia Sharp in 1907. They subsequently moved to New York in 1910 to further Mahonri's career opportunities. Cecilia died of cancer 1917. Mahonri would later marry Dorothy Weir in 1931.

Though he ceased being active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when he was young, Mahonri maintined a relationship with the Church, and was commissioned several times to create sculptures for them. The most famous of these are the This is the Place Monument and Seagull Monument. Primary places of residence included Salt Lake City, Utah; New York City; Paris, France; and Branchville, Connecticut. After suffering an ulcer attack coupled with pneumonia, he died on November 2, 1957 in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Biographical / Historical

Cecelia Sharp Young (1872-1917) was an American piano teacher.

Cecelia SHarp Young was born on July 7, 1872 to James Sharp and Elizabeth Naish Rogers in Salt Lake City, Utah. She studied piano in Paris somewhere in the span of 1901-1904. She returned to the United States due to her father's failng health. She met Mahonri Mackintosh Young in 1906, and the two were married on February 19, 1907. She died of cancer on November 4, 1917 in Bergen, New Jersey. She was buried in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.

Biographical / Historical

Mary Lightfoot Tarleton Knollenberg (1904-1992) was an American sculptor.

Mary Lightfoot Tarleton Knollenberg was born on June 9, 1904 in New York. She was a student of Mahonri Mackintosh Young and Heinz Warneke. She was an influential artist in her career as a sculpturist, and was a member of several organizations, such as the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. She died in her sleep on December 21, 1992 in Chester, CT.

Biographical / Historical

Mahonri Sharp Young (1911-1996) was an American art historian, writer, and museum director.

Mahonri Sharp Young was born on July 23, 1911 to Mahonri Mackintosh Young and Cecilia Sharp in New York. He wrote several books on art history, and also worked as the director of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute in Utica, N.Y. and the Columbus Gallery of Fine Art in Ohio. On December 3, 1940, he married Rhoda Mitchell Salterthwaite. He died on June 16, 1996 in Long Island, New York, at the age of 84.

Extent

79 boxes (39.5 linear ft.)

Language of Materials

English

Other Finding Aids

Finding aid available in repository.

Other Finding Aids

File-level inventory available online. http://files.lib.byu.edu/ead/XML/MSS4.xml

Custodial History

Acquired by Brigham Young University from Mahonri Sharp Young and Agnes Cecilia Young Lay, children of Mahonri MacKintosh Young and his first wife, Cecilia Sharp Young. In 1979, BYU received from Mrs. Bernhard Knollenberg (formerly Mary L. Tarleton), correspondence between her and Mahonri M. Young dated 1925-1930.

Appraisal

19th Century Western and Mormon Manuscripts.

Title
Register of Mahonri M. Young papers
Status
Completed
Author
Garrett Schroath
Date
2011 June 1
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English in Latin script.

Repository Details

Part of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections Repository

Contact:
1130 HBLL
Brigham Young University
Provo Utah 84602 United States