Marvin Gregory
Listed in the Western Reflections author directory.
Marvin Gregory and his wife Ruth assembled a large collection of historic photographs of the San Juan Mountains. Our author directory lists Marvin by name, with no book attached, but our library carries Images of the San Juans Revised, a 1997 book drawn from the Ruth and Marvin Gregory Photograph Collection. This page covers that link.
About Marvin Gregory
Our catalogue description says the collection was put together by two people whose love for the San Juan Mountains was evident. Ruth and San Juan historian P. David Smith chose their favorites from over ten thousand prints, and Smith wrote the extended captions. Ruth's family is in its seventh generation in Colorado, and her grandfather was one of the first settlers in the San Juans.
A bookseller's listing adds that Marvin is deceased, and that Ruth has lived in the San Juans for almost eighty years. It says she takes her own photographs, paints and writes poetry. We found no birth or death dates for Marvin in any page we read, so we give none.
Marvin Gregory is listed in the Western Reflections author directory and the books under this name are not yet on the site. If this is your page, send us the details and we will add them. In the meantime, the library carries the rest of the catalogue, from regional history to memoir and fiction.
What the books share
The one book connected to this name is a picture history of the San Juans. By its description, the photographs show life, landscape and the times of the early San Juans, and Ruth's family appears throughout because she or her relatives lived much of what the images record. The pictures are mostly unpublished, and each was kept because it told a story.
Next steps for readers of this author
Dating a family photograph from the San Juans
If you hold an old mountain print and know little about it, search the online collections above by place name, then ask an archive for help. Write down every name and detail on the back first.
Planning an archive visit
The Ouray research center takes visitors by appointment, so call ahead, bring a short list of names and places, and ask what can be copied.
Go deeper
The Ruth and Marvin Gregory collection is a photographic record of the San Juan Mountains, and several real archives hold images and papers from the same country.
Ouray County Historical Society archives
According to its website, the research center holds over 8,000 photographs and 25,000 documents, and is open by appointment only.
San Juan County Historical Society
Silverton's historical society, which runs a mining museum, jail and archive and lists Silverton newspapers from 1874 on its home page.
Denver Public Library Special Collections
Offers photographs and digital collections plus research guides on Colorado history, useful for comparing old San Juan views.
History Colorado Research Center
The state historical society's research center, with an online collection that can be searched by keyword.
Good to know
Is there a book by Marvin Gregory in your library?
Who wrote the captions?
Writers like this one are how the list was built
We have published Colorado and Western writers since 1996, and every submission is still read by a person. Send yours, finished or half written.