The Utah Academic Library Consortium wish to express their deepest appreciation to the Library of Congress and Ameritech, for the generous grant which permitted the digital publication of Trails of Hope: Overland Diaries and Letters, 1846-1869. We feel fortunate to have this publication become a part of the American Memory site from the Library of Congress. This project has been a labor of love for many individuals since its intellectual conception in 1998, the grant receipt in September 1999, and its first digital publication in May 2002.

To take the trail motif perhaps farther than we should, it has been a long and often difficult trail to bring this project to publication. There were many stops and starts and, at times, it seemed as though we were all stuck deeply in trail ruts along the Platte River. There were also times we realized that we had loaded the grand piano instead of the flute on our wagon, and consequently we deepened those ruts and increased the debris along the trail when we had to toss out another good, but not necessarily workable idea.

On this project, almost everything tried was new to the Lee Library, Brigham Young University as the lead institution, and to many of our participants. There are consequently a large number of people whose project contributions and roles are most gratefully acknowledged. The libraries, historical society, and museum participants are arranged alphabetically for ease in presentation. Occasionally an individual will be listed more than once, indicating the various contributions they have made over the past three years.

The individuals listed below without a title are the many student employees who have made an invaluable contribution to this publication, indeed without them, it would not have happened. We wish to extend a special thanks to Joni Poppitz Stimpson, who began working on the project in 1999 as our student lead, with responsibility as a transcriber, trainer of other transcribers, researcher, and the author of our trail diarist biographies

Original Grant Applicants

• Brigham Young University, Lee Library: Susan L. Fales, Project Director; William Lund, Library Information Systems Manager; Scott Duvall, Assistant University Librarian, Special Collections; Brad Westwood, Department Chair, Special Collections; Scott Eldredge, Digital Program Manager; Robert Espinosa, Special Collections Imaging Center Manager & Project Manager; Paul Angerhofer, Special Collections Cataloger.
• Consortium Participants: Max J. Evans, Director, Utah State Historical Society; Irvin Kenneth Luker, Jr., Marriott Library, University of Utah; Gregory C. Thompson, Assistant Director, Special Collections, Marriott Library, University of Utah; Ann Buttars, Head Curator, Special Collections and Archives, Merrill Library, Utah State University
• Writers and Evaluators: Stanley B. Kimball, Lead Historian, Emeritus Faculty, History Department, Southern Illinois University; William G. Hartley, Research Historian, Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for LDS History, Brigham Young University; Judy Dykman, Retired history teacher, Churchill Junior High

Brigham Young University, Lee Library

• Project Management: Robert Espinosa, Project Manager, Special Collections;
  Scott Eldredge, Digital Program Manager
• Selection of the Diaries, Letters, Photographs, Maps, and Trail Guides: Brad Westwood, Department Chair, Special Collections; Scott Duvall, Assistant University Librarian, Special Collections; Susan L. Fales, Curator of Digital Historical Collections, Special Collections; Scott Eldredge, Digital Program Manager; Tom Wells, Photoarchivist, Special Collections
• Authorship, Editing, and "Suggested Readings": Susan L. Fales, Curator of Digital Historical Collections, Special Collections; Scott Duvall, Assistant University Librarian, Special Collections; Scott Eldredge, Digital Program Manager; Fred R. Gowans, Emeritus Faculty, History Department; J. Michael Hunter, History Librarian; Joni Poppitz Stimpson
• Copyright and Rights Management: Carl M. Johnson, Director of Copyright Licensing Office; Paul Angerhofer, Assistant Counsel, Office of General Counsel
• Digital Imaging and Post Scanning: Robert Espinosa, Project Manager, Special Collections; Students Chantelle Bailey, Allison Geyer, Geoff Hack, Sarah Hanson, Valli Hatley, Sarah Ann Hutchings, Alison Jeffs, Jacob Johnson, Jon Liddiard, Kathleen Mecham, Nicolas Sorhaitz, Brett Weber, Jeremy Weber, and Brooke Willis
• Digital Imaging File Management: Jeremy Weber
• Diary Transcription & Proofing: Susan Corrigan, Secretary and Office Manager, Special Collections; Students Stephanie Dickson, Victoria Hale, Andrew Harris, Sam Job, Sarah Knutti, Denise McDonald, Corrine Merzlock, Kellie Nielsen, Laura Ostler, Meijken Westenscow, and Stacy Whitman
• TEI Mark-up, Editing and Proofing: Design and direction: Robert Espinosa, Project Manager; Editing and proofing: Theresa Bartholomew, Carrie Hansen, Sarah Knutti, Katie Nielsen, Brenya Smith, and Joni Poppitz Stimpson
• TEI XML/XSL Transformations: Brandon MacArthur, Manager, Imaging Centers; Jacob Cahoon
• Metadata, Cataloging, and Authority Work: Kayla Willey, Metadata Cataloger & Cataloging Lead on this Project; Shannon Hoffman, Subject Authorities Librarian; Rachel Wadham, Names Authorities Librarian; Rick Grapes, Map Collection Manager; Catalogers Thom Edlund, Karen Griggs, Annick Houze, Robert Maxwell, Dale Swenson, Virginia Watson, and John Wright; Cataloging Paraprofessionals Rebecca Bailey, Valerie Buck, Sharolyn Pyeatt, and Cheryl Rose; Students Ryan Bellows, Sarah Farnsworth, Stephanie Howard, Audrey Keith, Nikki Peterson, Nichole Murray, Kevin Rieske, and Sarah Willis.
• Programming, Content Management, and Web Design: Amy Stucki, Web Programming Manager; Jacob Jenson, Web Programmer; Ryan Price, Unix Systems Manager; William Lund, Library Information Systems Manager; Annalee Tyler, Web Designer; Jon Liddiard, Interactive Map; and Merrill Hutchison
• Translation: Professor Ronald D. Dennis, Translation of Welsh in the William Ajax diary.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Family and Church History Department

• Authorship, "Suggested Readings" Contributors, and Consultants: Melvin L. Bashore, Senior Librarian, Church History Library; Michael N. Landon, Archivist, Church Archives
• Photograph Selection and Digital Imaging: William W. Slaughter, Photoarchivist; Kelly Taylor, Scanning & Digitization Expert

Churchill County Museum and Archives, Fallon, Nevada

• Selection/Digital Imaging: Pam Nelson, Photograph Curator; Karen McNary, Education Curator & Photographer

Idaho State University, Idaho Falls

• Photograph Selection & Liaison to the Project: Karen Kearns, Head of Special Collections and Archives
• Photographer and Photograph Selections: Dr. Paul Link, Professor, Department of Geosciences

University of Nevada, Reno

• Photograph Selection and Digital Imaging: Kathryn Totton, Photograph Curator
• Digital Imaging Assistance: Students Ayan Goswami and Angela Moor

University of Utah, Marriott Library

• Digital Imaging and Post Scanning: Kenning Arlitsch, Head of Digital Technologies; Kelly Taylor, Scanning & Digitization Expert
• Diary Selection: Stan Larson, Curator of Manuscripts
• Map Selection: Irvin Kenneth Luker, Jr., Emeritus Librarian
• Transcribers: Collection Specialists Karen Carver, Kate Kimball, Lisa DeMille, Elizabeth Rogers; students Serena Peterson and Heather Karness

Utah State Historical Society

• Photograph Selection: Linda Thatcher, Collections Manager; Susan Whetstone, Curator of Photographs; Janell Tuttle, Information Services Manager
• Digital Imaging: Janelle Tuttle, Information Services Manager

Utah State University, Merrill Library

• Diary Selection: Ann Buttars, Head Curator, Special Collections and Archives