Frederick Hoffman Wood papers

Collection

Identifier: ACCN 1603

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The Frederick Hoffman Wood papers (1950s-1960s) consist of a diary and loose diary pages, correspondence, clippings, brochures, and other materials that document his participation in the 1955-1956 Eggert-Hatch Expedition. The expedition was a river trip down the Green and Colorado Rivers with the purpose of making a complete film record of the river canyons before the great dams at Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon were built.

Dates

1950s-1960s

Language of Materials

Collection materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.

Conditions Governing Use

The library does not claim to control copyright for all materials in the collection. An individual depicted in a reproduction has privacy rights as outlined in Title 45 CFR, part 46 (Protection of Human Subjects). For further information, please review the J. Willard Marriott Library’s Use Agreement and Reproduction Request forms.

Biographical Sketch

Frederick H. Wood (b. 1904) was the owner of the Open Book bookshops in Bridgeport and Fairfield, Conneticutt. In 1952, he took his family on a one-month car trip to visit relatives in California. It was on this trip that Fred Wood began his love affair with the American West. He read everything he could regarding the history of western settlement. When he saw an ad in the Saturday Review of Literature seeking participants in a river expedition to film the Colorado River, Wood replied, was accepted, and became a member of the crew during the two-month, 1,000 mile journey. The first leg was from Green River, Wyoming to Lees Ferry, Arizona, where the low stage of the water made the leaders decide to postpone the Grand Canyon segment of the voyage until the next year. In 1956, Fred Wood was back for the last part of the trip, through the Grand Canyon. After that, he never returned to the American West, but built a library of books about the region. He sold his bookshops in the 1970s, and died in 1986.