An archivist from Yellowstone National Park praised the Yellowstone collection in the Harold B. Lee Library in a lecture Thursday afternoon Oct. 10.

Lee Whittlesey, archivist and historian of Yellowstone, said BYU's collection is one of few such collections in libraries in the country.

The display, titled "Yellowstone: An American Wonderland," will be on display on the first floor of the Harold B. Lee Library through Dec. 15.

The collection contains about 1800 books, pamphlets, photographs and postcards. Some of the items are so rare that until a few years ago Yellowstone did not even have a copy of them.

"We historians who have Yellowstone as one of our primary corners will be watching your progress with interest," Whittlesey said.

He spoke highly of his long-time friend and associate Dean Larsen who donated the collection of Yellowstone paraphernalia to BYU two years ago.

He said when Larsen began working at BYU more than forty years ago there were about 250,000 volumes in the library. When Larsen retired as associate university librarian in 1995 there were more than 3 million.

"Dean Larsen was largely the architect for the library's growth," Whittlesey said.

He also spoke of his relationship with Larsen.

Larsen was on a research trip to Yellowstone in the '90s when he met Whittlesey.

Whittlesey later assisted Larsen on a bibliography of works on Yellowstone. He said he was saddened by the news of Larsen's death in May, saying he had been looking forward to getting to share more experiences with him.

When asked to share an anecdote from his experiences at Yellowstone, Whittlesey spoke of a research project he worked on for several years in search of waterfalls in the park.

He said it is a wonderful feeling to discover a waterfall.

"First you hear it. It's a roar and you know you're on the right course," Whittlesey said. "It's a rush. It's just a grand feeling."