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The 262 letters and 1 poem included in this collection were written by Sinclair Lewis to Marcella Powers between 1939 and 1947. Lewis met Powers in August 1939 when they were both acting in Eugene O’Neill’s play Ah Wilderness! at the Provincetown Theater in Cape Cod. Lewis and Powers began a relationship despite the 36 year age difference between them.

In these letters, Lewis discusses a wide variety of topics - his career, his writing, and his feelings for Powers. During the time of their relationship, Lewis traveled quite a bit throughout the United States giving lectures. He also spent time working in Los Angeles in the motion picture industry and lived in Excelsior and Duluth in Minnesota where he spent much time writing. Lewis also wrote about his social life, including the people that he met, the games of chess that he played, and the books that he read. Many of the letters are very long while others are quite short, with some including cartoons drawn by Lewis.

The letters end in September 1947, shortly after Powers marriage to Michael Amrine. Lewis tells Powers that she will no longer receive an allowance from him, but that if she were ever in need of help that he would be there for her. When Lewis passed away in 1951, Powers was listed in his will.

The William M. Lindgren Papers are organized by series. The bulk of the material are images, mostly slides, that date just after World War II until his death in October 1993.

Series 1: Personal Papers

Organized into three sub-series, these materials focus on many aspects of Lindgren's life. Materials related to his academic career as a student and St. Cloud State faculty member are here, including two lectures (with recordings), his master thesis from the University of British Columbia, and various certificates and diplomas.

There is significant biographical information here as well. His autobiography, done in 1993 before he passed away, is key and tells Lindgren's life story through his own words. Lindgren's passports are important as they document the places he traveled for almost 50 years.

In addition, there is some correspondence with pen pals (as well as his parents) from all over the world.

Series 2: Photo Albums

The photo albums document mostly Lindgren's travels for almost fifty years. The photo albums that date before 1970 are particularly important, as they show Lindgren's extensive travels throughout Asia, including China, India, and the Middle East. The early albums show Lindgren as a young man before, during, and just after World War II are significant as well, especially the album that focuses on a visit to Yellowstone Park in 1940-1941.

The photo albums after 1970 are primarily Lindgren traveling when he was semi-retired or retired. The albums also include images of family activities in Cambridge or other Minnesota locations.

The photo albums in boxes 3 through 6 each include an index of the images and the descriptions that Lindgren gave them and with some commentary. These descriptions were created by student Christina T. Markwood-Rod in the early 2000s. In addition, some of the photo albums have been scanned to provide easier access.

Series 3: Print Images and Negatives

Dating primarily from the 1970s through the early 1990s, this series includes both print images and negatives. These images focus on Lindgren's world travels.

Some print images in this series do have negatives and are kept together.  The negatives were organized here as Lindgren had organized them. The description was taken from the negative/photo envelope, which were written by Lindgren or Markwood-Rod.  Those negatives that did not have photographs with them were kept together as units. These negatives, especially those from the 1980s and early 1990s, are for some of the images in the photo albums in series 2.

Significant images include the portraits of Lindgren as a young man and as he aged over time, including his passport photos. There are images of his parents, Roy and Rudy Lindgren, as children, young adults, and as they aged, too.

Series 4: Slides

Sub-series 1: Slide Presentations

This sub-series contains color slides, as organized by Lindgren, of his travels while working, especially in Asia during the 1940s through the early 1960s. Many of the slides have descriptions written on them by Lindgren. Locations featured include China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Macao (China).

These slides were used by Lindgren for presentations to his classes and for other events.

Sub-series 2: Other slides

This sub-series contains color slides and described as "unused", as opposed to the slides in sub-series 1. These slides were organized by location by Lindgren. The majority of slides have descriptions written on them by Lindgren, as well as lists that were on slide storage cases in Lindgren's hand.  Dating from the 1950s through the 1960s, locations visited include Australia, England, France, Greece, Nepal, North America, Philippines, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.

All the slides from both sub-series have been digitized as lower resolution JPEG images and available in an instance of Omeka. Each folder in this series was created as a separate collection in Omeka. Also, each image has been given a unique image ID number, starting with "LGR".

Information was added into the description field for individual slides if there was any to add. That information came from what Lindgren wrote directly on the slide as well as anything that was on list from the slides storage box. These lists were only from Sub-series 2: Other Slides. When the writing was hard to read, we did the best we could to transcribe it and then added a question mark in brackets. Anything that was added by Archives' staff was always put into brackets, especially if the slide was not identified but the landmark was easily recognized.