Skip to main content

James H. Madsen photographic slide collection

 Collection
Identifier: P1048

Scope and Contents

The photographs in the James H. Madsen collection document over forty years of paleonotological work at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Carbon County, Utah. Some of the slides were shown by the donor in the course of talks he gave about the history of the quarry, while others were collected by him to document the operations there. The slides were arranged and numbered by the donor in subject order, and that original order has been maintained. The order is: Introduction/Overview; People; In-situ Bones A and B; Geology and Stratigraphy; Research; and Quarry Visitors Center Dedication. Several sections which appear as titles in the inventory (Pathologies; Exhibits; Construction; Mounted skeletons based on C-LDQ fossils) but have no slides listed will be filled in with latter addenda. The slides have been digitized for inclusion on the Multimedia Archives website. The accompanying inventory was prepared by Mr. Madsen and his firm, DinoLab Inc.

Dates

  • 1950s-1990s

Creator

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.

Organizational History

HISTORY OF THE CLEVELAND-LLOYD DINOSAUR QUARRY

It is not known when dinosaur bones were first discovered at the site which later became known as the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. Dr. William Lee Stokes, who grew up in the nearby village of Cleveland, Utah, claimed that he had first sighted them while herding cattle in the area as a teenager in the early years of the 20th century. The first collection of bones, however, was done by Golden York, the curator of a small geology museum at the University of Utah, in the late 1920s. From 1939 through 1941, a group of students from Princeton, University, led by William Lee Stokes, came to work at the quarry and collected over 1500 bones for display in Princeton=s museum. The field work was financed by Philadelphia businessman (and alumnus of Princeton) Malcomb Lloyd, so the quarry was named the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry. For almost two decades after that, the quarry lay unused, until it was re-opened by the University of Utah and Dr. Stokes in 1960 for a five-year project. James H. Madsen was placed in charge of this project, and has remained at the quarry as the manager since that time. Other schools that have worked at the quarry include the College of Eastern Utah and Brigham Young University. Today, the Cleveland Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry is one of the world's foremost dinosaur fossil sources. More than 30 complete skeletons, 12,000 individual bones and several dinosaur eggs have come from this prolific fossil bed. The site was recognized as the Bureau of Land Management=s first National Natural Landmark in 1966. In the late 1960s, a visitors center and shelter over the quarry itself were constructed, so that visitors could view displays of bones taken from the quarry and watch the work in progress. The quarry is recognized worldwide as the primary source of flesh eating Allosaur skeletons, and is an important source for several other species. Over the years, bones have been taken from the quarry representing at least 70 different animals and 14 species, including two that were first discovered there, Marshosaurus, named for the pioneer paleontologist Othniel Marsh, and Stokesosaurs Clevelandi, named for William Lee Stoes. Casts and original skeletons assembled from these bones are on display in over 60 museums world wide, including the College of Eastern Utah's Prehistoric Museum in Price.

James H. Madsen was a geology student at the University of Utah in the late 1950s, when he was asked by Golden York, curator of the geology department=s museum, to prepare for display bones taken from the Cleveland-Lloyd quarry in eastern Utah. By the time he finished graduate school in geology, jobs for geologists were scarce, so when Dr. Stokes asked him in 1959 to open the Cleveland-Lloyd Quarry, he agreed and stayed there in one capacity or another for the rest of his professional career.

Extent

1 Box

Abstract

The photographic slide collection documents over forty years of paleonotological work at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry in Carbon County, Utah. Some of the slides were shown by the donor in the course of talks he gave about the history of the quarry, while others were collected by him to document the operations there. The slides were arranged and numbered by the donor in subject order, and that original order has been maintained.

Arrangement

The slides were arranged and numbered by the donor in subject order, and that original order has been maintained. The order is: Introduction/Overview; People; In-situ Bones A and B; Geology and Stratigraphy; Research; and Quarry Visitors Center Dedication. Several sections which appear as titles in the inventory (Pathologies; Exhibits; Construction; Mounted skeletons based on C-LDQ fossils) but have no slides listed will be filled in with latter addenda.

Processing Information

Processed by Roy Webb and Mary Ann Curtis in 2002.
Title
Guide to the James H. Madsen photographic slide collection, 1950s-1990s
Author
Finding aid created by Roy Webb and Mary Ann Curtis.
Date
2002 (last modified: 2018)
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
Undetermined
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the J. Willard Marriott Library Special Collections Repository

Contact:
295 South 1500 East
Salt Lake City Utah 84112 United States
801-581-8863