Peter Piper collection

Collection

Identifier: MS 0698

Staff Only

Summary

This collection includes research files, prints, hunting/fishing/outdoor book collection and a mystery book collection.

Dates

Creation: 1792 - 1987

Biographical Note

Peter Piper was born in Bangor, Maine in 1902. His father was with the Boy Scouts of America, and Peter's early childhood fishing was at camps in the Maine woods. Later the family traveled to many states and finally to the Northwest.

Peter received a degree in Power Plant Engineering at Kansas State University, and began a long career with Washington Water Power at Spokane in 1926. With time out to serve as a Major during World War II, he continued with Washington Water Power until retirement in 1967. Source: Idaho State Library

Extent

11.5 Cubic Feet (11 record boxes, 1 oversize flat box. 663 fishing/hunting/outdoor book titles and 740 mystery book titles.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

Peter Piper's research files (boxes 1-11) span the years from 1926 to 1975 and cover a wide range of material on fishing. Most of the materials are articles extracted from sporting magazines. Subjects covered include general fishing skills, fly fishing and fly tying , fishing equipment and fishing for specific fish. Mr. Piper's interest in literature, both fishing and non-fishing, historic and modern, is represented by his files of fishing stories and essays from magazines.The present subject headings and arrangement of folders follow Mr. Piper's filing system as closely as could be determined from his filing index and folder labels. In this inventory, the main subject headings are noted by series.

Box 12 of the collection includes black and white photoprints of fishing scenes, illustrations from magazines and miscellaneous color prints.

The fishing/hunting/outdoor titles have been catalogued and entered into the Public Archives and Research Library's (PARL) collection database, Re:Discovery. The books are shelved in PARL's special reading room by Library of Congress call number. Some outstanding titles in the collection are : Charles Bowker, THE ART OF ANGLING, 1792; W. Carroll's THE ANGLER'S VADE MECUM, 1818 and an 1859 edition of Izaak Walton. Also included is a 2 volume work by Roderick L. Haig-Brown, THE WESTERN ANGLER, 1939, only 950 copies were printed and Mr. Piper obtained numbered copy 650. A printed list of all titles is available. It must be pointed out that it was the wish of the Piper family that the book collection continue to grow; PARL has both accepted the donation of and purchased additional fishing titles for the collection.

Peter Piper also accumulated a large collection of mystery books. Included are many of the works of well-known American, British, and French mystery writers from about 1910 to 1970. The collection is also representative of a number of American and British paperback book publishers. These titles are shelved by author in PARL's special reading room. A printed list of all titles is available.