Ira J. Taylor Library - Special Collections

This collection contains personal papers, memorabilia, and biographies (both published and unpublished) of John Wesley Iliff, Elizabeth Iliff Warren and their children. It comprises 7 boxes of materials (5 linear feet) donated by Louise Iliff, Dr. Alberta Iliff Shattuck, and others.
A brief introduction to the family and this collection follows. For more detailed information, please go to: Biographical Sketches of Iliff Family Members The Finding Aid to the Iliff Family Collection
The Iliff family was a major force in the development of industry, education and religion in Colorado. John Wesley Iliff was one of the first Colorado businessmen to realize the potential of raising cattle on the western plains. His second wife, Elizabeth Sarah Fraser, became a major benefactor of Colorado Methodism after her marriage to Bishop Henry White Warren in 1883. The Warrens played a critical role in keeping the University of Denver afloat in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Elizabeth Iliff also helped create a graduate school of theology at the University in the 1880s and 1890s.
	Her stepson, William Seward, and her daughter, Louise, joined Mrs. Warren in providing funds for the endowment and construction of the Iliff School of Theology, named after John Wesley Iliff. Throughout the twentieth century members of the Iliff family have been on the Board of Trustees of The Iliff School of Theology and provided generous gifts for the academic life of the institution. When William Seward Iliff married Alberta Gearhart Bloom, the Iliff family was united with another major pioneer family of Colorado, the Frank Bloom family.
The Blooms were prominent in the early commercial and social life of the Trinidad, Colorado area. The collection's unpublished histories chronicle in detail the home and business life of both the Iliff and Bloom families. Written for the most part by Dr. Alberta Iliff Shattuck, they provide private anecdotes unavailable elsewhere. Taken as a whole, the Iliff Family Papers' value lies in the stature of the group it chronicles, the information disclosed in its unpublished biographies, and their relation to other collections both within the Iliff Archives and among local Denver repositories. The record group is broken into twelve series. Series I-X and XII contain primary and secondary documents that relate to the lives of specific Iliff family members. Biographical sketches are provided for each series, and a series description is included wherever the series structure is sufficiently complicated to warrant one. Further information on the Iliff Family can be derived from the papers concerning the incorporation of the Iliff School of Theology, the Bishop Henry White Warren Papers, and the catalogues from the School's beginning in 1893. Significant material on the Iliff family can also be found in the following archives and/or manuscript repositories: Denver Public Library, Western History Colorado Historical Society The University of Denver Archives and Special Collections
© 2002. Marshall Eidson