Clel Georgetta Papers

The papers were divided into twenty-four series but the bulk of the collection consists of the writings of Georgetta, including his diaries, speeches, stories, articles, and book manuscripts. The diaries in particular are rich in content, documenting not only Clel's activities from 1924 until his death, but events in Nevada and the U.S. These diaries were transcribed from Clel's original manuscript sheets into bound typescripts. Each volume consists of one year. Volumes 1-8 (from age 15 until the summer before his enrollment at the University of Nevada) are not part of this collection and according to Roberta Jahnke, his secretary and estate trustee, were not transcribed at Georgetta's request. They are part of the manuscript collections of the Nevada Historical Society.

A brief listing of the topics covered in the diaries includes student life at the University of Nevada, University of Wisconsin, and University of Washington; ranching; sheep ranching; lawyers and the practice of law in Nevada; the Nevada divorce industry (including his own divorce); water and property rights; medical practices of Christian Scientists; the life of Rose Grant Georgetta; the Reno entertainment industry; Clel's attitudes toward minorities and women; Clel's travel experiences around the world; thoughts about his parents, wife, and daughter; and many more. Georgetta may not have initially intended the diaries for public viewing but by the 1920s he seemed to have developed a consciousness that the diaries might someday be published. He exercised some discretion in his discussions but his attitudes and personal opinions about women and minorities, often derogatory, were frankly expressed.

An additional source of information about these topics is the collection of scrapbooks compiled by Georgetta, beginning with his year at the University of Nevada. Consisting of bound volumes, these clippings and some letters provide a snapshot view of Nevada and Clel's own personal interests.

Georgetta traveled extensively in the 1960s and 1970s, including two trips around the world and to various countries in South America, Scandinavia, and northern Europe; Hawaii; Taiwan; and Russia. He had separate transcripts of his travel accounts prepared by Mrs. Jahnke and bound in individual binders. Clel also compiled a partial index to his diaries, specifying "pages of interest" and where they were located.

There is very little material created by Georgetta's parents in this collection; however, there is one folder of autobiographical sketches composed by his mother, Rose Grant Georgetta which discusses her early life, provides background information on her parents, and examines Clel's early life experiences.

The collection contains little correspondence or other personal papers of Clel or his parents. Several diary entries in the early 1970s describe Georgetta's systematic effort to clean out and destroy all such personal material, including photographs and letters.

Seldom does one manuscript collection contain so much information about the life of an individual. Not only is this a rich source of biographical data about Georgetta, a person of significance in Nevada history, it also provides important information about other Nevada topics: ranching, the attitude of ranchers toward the federal government, politics, the urban development movement in Reno, the practice of law in northern Nevada, legislative history of the 1930s, and student life at the University of Nevada and at the Universities of Wisconsin and Washington. Georgetta hoped to memorialize himself but inadvertently has given us far more than the biography of a Nevada man.