Research Collections

Dawson Scrapbooks and Index

The Dawson Scrapbook Index is an alphabetical file of names and subjects cited in the eighty volumes of newspaper clippings that comprise the Dawson Scrapbooks. The index will give a volume and page number. 
Newspaper clippings in the scrapbooks date from  1860-1923. The Dawson Scrapbooks may serve as an index to newspapers, because most articles are identified by  date and name of paper. Although the scrapbooks may not be photocopied because of their fragility, this reference can lead to retrieval of the newspaper microfilm from which a print copy can be made. 
Thomas F. Dawson arrived in Colorado in 1876 from Kentucky. Until 1885 he worked for the Denver Tribune and was editor of the Denver Times. From 1885-1910 he served as Sen. Henry M. Teller’s personal secretary. He also served as the Associated Press’s reporter in the Senate. He would spend summers at his Colorado ranch. In 1921 Dawson became curator and historian at the State Historical and Natural History Society of Colorado. He continued his old but useful habit of clipping items from the Denver papers. These clippings make up the 80 volumes of material on Colorado. Librarians and volunteers indexed each volume in the 1920s and 1930s. Dawson died June 25, 1923 in a car accident while on a Colorado Parks tour sponsored by Colorado Press Club for President Warren G. Harding’s visit to Denver.

(from Colorado History NOW February 2002, article by David N. Wetzel.)

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