Leon W. Dean Papers

The Leon Dean collection contains documents spanning multiple decades, from Dean’s personal documents to his articles and stories, as well as research by Tom Bassett, a UVM archivist. The Personal series refers to any of Dean’s documents not immediately related to his writing, including his correspondence, notebooks with financial records and other miscellany, and memorabilia, including business cards and materials related to his hobbies. Dean’s schoolwork as a student at Mount Hermon and the University of Vermont are present in this series, as are assignments, student papers, notes, cards, and event listings from his time as a professor at the university. Dean’s involvement in various local and national historical groups is documented in the Organizations and Patriotic Societies series, the latter of which contains documents pertaining to national societies, such as the Sons of the American Revolution. Dean’s research into his family’s background, as well as his CV, and articles written about him, are included in the Biographical Articles subseries. Dean’s notes on Vermont’s folklore and culture, some of which pertained to his involvement in Vermont folklore societies along with his articles about Vermont, are contained in the Folklore and Vermont Interest subseries.

Leon Dean’s writings have been sorted by format: Handwritten, typed, and published. Documents unrelated to his articles, such as speeches, publisher’s catalogues, and book reviews, are located in the Writings: Miscellaneous subseries. The Dean collection was processed by multiple people, and the writings were first organized in an index format and then later foldered individually, and have been named according to the title written on the article. In instances when a piece was untitled, the first line has been written in quotes. Some pieces in the collection had multiple titles as they were revised, and these revisions were foldered together when identified. The Published sub-series contains magazines and newspapers that printed Dean’s stories, and are organized by the name of the publication. The Manuscript Records subseries contains notebooks and index cards that Dean used to log each piece he wrote, noting where he sent it to, if it was accepted, and when it was published.

The Tom Bassett series, created in 1984 as research for an article Bassett intended to write about Leon Dean, contains interviews with figures close to Leon Dean, including his wife, along with biographical sketches and notes on the publication of many of Dean’s books.