Frank Love Collection

TITLE:  Frank Love Collection

DATE RANGE:   1960s-1990s

CALL NUMBER: Y-MS 29

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:  5 linear feet (10 boxes)

PROVENANCE: Donated by Dorothy Love, March 2014

COPYRIGHT: Copyright is unknown due to the multiple sources of materials within this collection.

RESTRICTIONS: None.   

CREDIT LINE:  Frank Love Collection, Y-MS 29, Yuma County Library District

PROCESSED BY: Linda Whitaker, May 2014

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:  

Francis (Frank) Love was born May 22, 1926 in Cumberland, Maryland. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force during WWII and later received his B.A. and a M.A. degree  in history from Arizona State University. He taught at Mary Elizabeth Post School and the Fourth Avenue Junior High School before joining the faculty at Arizona Western College in 1969 to teach Western Civilization and American History. He was a noted authority on the Gadsden Treaty and a popular professor who strongly supported his students and campus activities. 

In a 1972 interview in the Yuma Sun, he stated that he became interested in Yuma history reading records in the basement of the Yuma County Court House. Frank Love was a local historian, a meticulous researcher and an engaging writer who published  Mining Camps and Ghost Towns along the Lower Colorado River (1974);  Arizona’s Story: A

Short History (1979);  From Brothel to Boom Town: Yuma’s Naughty Past (1981) A

Visitor’s Guide to Historic Yuma (1982); Hell’s Outpost: A History of Old Fort Yuma,

Arizona Territory 1854-1893 (1992); A Prayer, a Poultice, a Pall: Life and Death in

Yuma, Arizona Territory 1854-1893 (1994) with Tom Alspach and Ron Snowbarger; and Outlaws and Lawmen in Old Yuma, Arizona Territory  (1995). He also published articles in Frontier Times and True West magazines and wrote a popular column “When Arizona was Young” for the Yuma Sun. 

Frank Love served on numerous boards, committees, and non-profit organizations that included the District 1 School Board, Board of Directors and the Research Committee for the Yuma County Historical Society, the Arizona Education Association, the Methodist Church and Meals on Wheels. He died April 3, 2013 in Yuma of Alzheimer’s Disease. 

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE:   

The bulk of this collection consists of biographical files copied from Carl Hayden’s pioneer biographies, newspaper clippings, journal articles, microfilm and the internet.  These sources reflect a wide date range and provide the raw material for Frank Love’s newspaper columns, books, class room lectures and public presentations.  The mining materials are especially rich.

Many folders include his notes and commentary about conflicting reports in the historical record, quality of the sources, or where alternative conclusions could be drawn. Note that this collection includes only a small sample of Frank Love’s newspaper columns, books, and magazine articles. There is comparatively little personal correspondence with his readers or with other historians. 

Arranged in three series then alphabetical and chronologically within. Titles of folders largely represent the original. 

Series I: Research Files – includes correspondence, interviews, notes, draft fragments.  Series II: Publications – consists of programs, articles, published materials by other authors or organizations. Series III: Writings – by Frank Love, by his students or were sent to him for feedback.  

CONTAINER LIST: