Summary
Overview
1950s-2011 (mostly 1970-2000)
92 linear feet, 101 boxes (27 record cartons, 24 12x13 binder boxes, 17 11x14 print boxes, 13 archival boxes, 12 12x12 binder storage
boxes, 3 8x10 print boxes, 3 artifact boxes, 1 20x25 print box, 1 24x30 print box)
This collection is stored at ReCAP and Firestone Library.
This collection is stored partially onsite at Firestone Library and partially offsite at the ReCAP facility.
Requests will be delivered to Manuscripts Division, RBSC Reading Room
.
Princeton University. Library. Dept. of Rare Books and Special Collections
Manuscripts Division
One Washington Road
Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
Abstract
Douglas Kent Hall was an American writer and photographer active from the 1960s until 2008. This collection contains manuscripts, negatives,
contact sheets, prints, transparencies, notes, research files, and correspondence relating to a number of published and unpublished writings and
photography projects spanning Hall's entire career.
Description
Description
The Douglas Kent Hall Papers document approximately fifty years of the creator's life and contain materials relating to the two major aspects of
his work: creative writing and photography. The collection includes manuscripts, notes, and research files as well as black-and-white negatives,
contact sheets, color transparencies and prints for almost all of Hall's published and unpublished writings and photography projects. Audio and
visual materials are included in a number of magnetic and optical formats (cassette tapes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, and one 45rpm vinyl record). There is
also handwritten and typed correspondence relating to those projects, and more general correspondence ranging from personal letters to business
dealings with galleries. Unassociated and contextually ambiguous materials are also included.
A great majority of Hall's creative writing is present, consisting of books, plays, articles, essays, screenplays and teleplays, poetry, and
short stories from his time as a student up until his death. There are drafts of major publications including his first novel On the Way to the Sky (1972) and Let 'Er Buck (1973), as well as the interviews and
research behind the documentary The Great American Cowboy. A majority of the series consists of unpublished drafts
and related materials that are usually thematically related to other writings and photography projects that Hall was developing concurrently.
Other creative writings include a number of autobiographical short stories, freelance articles and reviews, a large amount of unpublished poetry,
and many unproduced screenplays.
The creative bulk of the collection consists of at least 96,000 unique images in the form of black-and-white negatives, contact sheets, color
transparencies, and prints spanning Hall's forty years of photography. Major subjects include rock and roll stars from the 1960s and early 1970s
(including Jimi Hendrix and The Who), the American southwest (including rodeos, mission churches, border residents, and Native dances), poets and
artists (including Mark Strand, Allen Ginsberg, W. S. Merwin) and photographic studies of subcultures including bodybuilding (with Arnold
Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno), prison life, drag racing, dance, and cowboy lifestyles. Locations photographed include the U.S.-Mexico border,
the American West, New Mexico, New York City, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and Russia. Since a number of these projects were developed as
publications, the photographs are accompanied by manuscripts, notes, research files, and correspondence related to their production.
The collection is organized into four major series with additional subdivisions.
Collection Creator
Biography
Douglas Kent Hall was born on December 12, 1938, in Vernal, Utah, a rural community approximately two hundred miles from Salt Lake City. Hall spent
his youth in Utah on a family farm where he developed a deep interest in the world of cowboys and rodeo from a very young age. He began writing
while in high school and went on to study Creative Writing at a number of institutions before earning his BA in English at Brigham Young University
in 1960. Hall then received his MFA from the Writer's Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1964, and began teaching.
In 1965, Hall began experimenting with photography and he studied technique for the next two years. Some of Hall's earliest work is the result of
his photographing his poet and writer friends while teaching at the University of Portland from 1964-1967. Freelance photography soon proved
lucrative and in 1967 he began photographing for promotional and advertising companies and contributing text to magazines. That same year, Hall left
academia and began a tour of Europe, later residing in London. He returned to the United States in 1969 and settled in New York City in 1971, where
he had his first photography exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1974.
Hall's continuing interest in creative writing defined most of his early career and he published four novels and six photography books in the 1970s.
Not limited to books, Hall also wrote an Academy Award-winning documentary about rodeo (his longtime interest) and a number of other unproduced
screenplays. His novels from this time were often autobiographical and centered around his rural Mormon-influenced childhood, while the photography
books explored subcultures to which Hall found himself drawn or incidentally introduced as an adult, such as rock and roll, bodybuilding, and prison
life.
In 1977, Hall relocated from New York City to New Mexico, a move that would influence the next thirty years of his work. His subsequent proximity to
the American southwest and border region, with its local environs and people, resulted in at least ten major publications and projects from the
1980s through the 2000s. As many if not more unpublished photography projects were also developed in this time, often based on travel to Russia,
Japan, England, Brazil, and Australia.
Hall continued to photograph, travel, write, and exhibit up until his death. Douglas Kent Hall died on March 30, 2008. He was survived by his wife
Dawn and son Devon.
Collection History
Acquisition
Gift of Douglas Kent Hall in 1972, 1975, and of Dawn
Hall in 2010 and 2011.
The 16 prints of Los Matachines de Alcalde (formerly WC066) were a gift of David McAlpin, Princeton Class of
1920.
Approximately 10,000 strips of negatives (35mm and 120mm) and approximately 11,000 35mm slides were re-housed in archival mylar pages.
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Valerie Addonizio in 2010-2011 with assistance
from Lisa Yankowitz '13. Finding aid written by Valerie Addonizio in 2011.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Hall, Douglas Kent. 2000. Albuquerque 2000. Albuquerque, N.M.: Albuquerque Museum.
Hall, Douglas Kent. 2002. Visionary: Douglas Kent Hall. Santa Fe, N.M.: Pennywhistle Press.
Access and Use
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research.
Access Restrictions
This collection is stored partially onsite (boxes 19-20, 30-101) at Firestone Library and partially offsite (boxes 1-18, 21-29) at the ReCAP
facility. Please consult with Rare Books and Special Collections about having the collection recalled to Firestone Library for your use. This
process normally requires 48-72 hours notice.
Use Restrictions
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. No further photoduplication of copies of material in the collection can be made when
Princeton University Library does not own the original. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from Dawn Hall, the
Estate of Douglas Kent Hall, 1716 Camino Gusto NW, Albuquerque, NM 87107.
Researchers should note that physical access to audio and visual media in a variety of magnetic and optic formats is restricted. Rare Books and
Special Collections does not have the equipment required for the playback of these materials, nor do policies on preservation allow for these
original recordings to be used. Further, obsolete formats would need to be converted at the patron's expense before any reproduction could be
made. Researchers may select materials for conversion and reproduction, but should allow approximately four to six weeks for the process,
especially if obsolete formats are involved.
Preferred Citation
Douglas Kent Hall Papers; 1950s-2011 (mostly 1970-2000), Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
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