Sally Zanjani Papers

The Sally Zanjani Papers contains research collected by Zanjani limited to her many books and articles on Nevada and western United States history. Most of the collection is comprised of photocopies of original documents held by historical societies, archives, and individuals; very few original documents are present in the collection. An attempt to differentiate between original documents and those that have been duplicated from originals has been made and can be noted through the placement of the date at the folder level within each series. If dates are located at the beginning of the file, the documents are copies; any dates at the end of files indicate original documents or when the copy was made. For example, an entry of “1907 miscellaneous, 1985; undated.” means that the copies of the documents cover 1907, but were made in 1985, and some materials were not dated at all.

The collection is arranged into 12 series reflecting the publication order of Zanjani’s books, with general research, articles, and other writings at the end. Series 1-9 contain research gathered for nine of Zanjani’s book-length publications: The Unspiked Rail (1981); The Ignoble Conspiracy (1986) with Guy Rocha; Jack Longstreet (1988); Goldfield: The Last Gold Rush on the Western Frontier (1992); A Mine of Her Own (1997); Sarah Winnemucca (2001); The Glory Days in Goldfield (2002); Devils Will Reign (2006); and Helen J. Stewart: First Lady of Las Vegas (2011) with Carrie Townley Porter. One folder and a copy of the book “Ghost Dance Winter” and Other Tales of the Frontier (1994) is found in Series 12. Types of research include: copies of original documents such as newspapers, wills, deeds, and letters; correspondence; interviews (both on paper and as audio cassettes); and copies of annotated excerpts from books on the subjects. Each series also includes drafts with revisions; notes; articles sampled from the book; and correspondence with publishers (including peer review correspondence and comments).

Series 10: Nevada Political and Historical Research, contains materials that were gathered by Zanjani during the course of her research, but are not directly related to a specific publication. It is possible that much of this research was used in more than one publication, although no attempt has been made to match this material with specific publications. While accessing this series, it is best to also check Series 1-9 for additional information.

Series 11: Articles, contains articles written by Zanjani but not necessarily associated directly with a specific publication. Many of the articles were written using the research collected by Zanjani while working on her book-length publications, but these articles were not excerpted from her publications. Articles that were excerpted from a book can be found with the series. Although Zanjani wrote mostly academic articles, Series 12: Other Writings and Miscellaneous includes three short stories written by her.

Nearly all of the correspondence in the collection is associated directly with a publication or article, though a small amount of general correspondence is included at the end of Series 12: Other Writings and Miscellaneous. The end of Series 12 includes files on the Mining History Association, of which she was president, and includes editorial correspondence, conference information, and a few copies of their newsletter with mentions of Zanjani. Also included here are 4 spiral bound notebooks of notes related to her dissertation, an early article based on her dissertation, and 2 notebooks of notes regarding Goldfield, Nevada.