ELWYN B. ROBINSON DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
CHESTER FRITZ LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA
GRAND FORKS, ND 58202
COLLECTION: OGL #1026
DATES: 1946 - 1981
SIZE: 3.75 linear feet
ACQUISITION: The Donald Dresden Papers were deposited in the Orin G. Libby Manuscript Collection by Dresden's wife, Mrs. Marta Dresden, Washington, D.C., in August 1985 (Acc.#85- 1390)
ACCESS: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Department of Special Collections.
RELATED PUBLICATIONS:
The Marquis de Mores: Emperor of the Bad Lands, by Donald Dresden.
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1970.
Call number: F641.M6 D7
Donald Dresden’s Guide to Dining Out in Washington. Washington,
D.C.:
Acropolis Books, 1977.
Call number: TX945.D74
Donald Dresden was born October 18, 1910, in Larimore, North Dakota. In 1932, he graduated from the University of North Dakota with a Bachelor of Science degree in economics. While at UND, he was a member of Blue Key and president of Beta Theta Pi fraternity. In 1934, he earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University.
Between 1934 and 1941, Dresden worked for the Federal Housing Administration in Washington, D.C.; the Edward B. Smith & Co. in New York; the American Radiator Company in Paris; and the American Business Credit Association in New York. In 1941, he joined the United States Army Air Force as a lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps. He eventually rose to the rank of major, and in 1944 became a public relations officer in the European Theater of Operations. While in the army, Dresden worked as a free lance writer selling articles to the New York Times, which led to a position as staff writer after the War.
In 1946, Dresden moved to France and once again became a free lance writer selling articles to many American, French, and British publications. During his stay in France he graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Acadamie de Cuisine de Paris in 1948. With the implementation of the Marshall Plan for European economic recovery, Dresden became Deputy Chief of Information with the American French Mission in 1949. While in this role he founded and edited the French- language magazine Rapports, France-Etats Unis which ran from 1949 to 1953.
Upon his return to the United States in 1953, Dresden accepted a position as Public Relations Director for the National Citizens Committee for Educational Television. Three years later he became an account executive in the Washington, D.C. public relations firm of Robert R. Mullen & Co., handling, among other things, the public relations aspects of the Ford Foundation's quarter-billion dollar hospital grant program. In 1958, Dresden moved to Kiplinger's Changing Times magazine as an Associate Editor, and in 1959 he became a writer of special articles on economic development for the World Bank. Between 1960 and 1969, he worked for the Scott Paper Company as Director of Public Relations; the United States Information Agency as a public information officer, editor, and writer; the United states Treasury Department as Public Affairs Consultant and ghostwriter; and the Foreign Service Journal as an associate editor. From 1969 to 1976, Dresden wrote a weekly critique of Washington, D.C. area restaurants as the restaurant critic for the Washington Post. Following his retirement from the Post, he continued to write articles on a freelance basis.
Dresden authored three books: Le Chemin de Paris dealt with his wartime experiences and was published in 1946. His second book, The Marquis de Mores: Emperor of the Bad Lands, was published in 1970. This book is a biography of Antoine Amedee-Marie-Vincent Manca de Vallombrosa, better known as the Marquis de Mores, who founded the town of Medora in the Dakota Territory in 1883 and lived there with his family until 1887. Dresden's third book, Donald Dresden's Guide to Dining Out in Washington, was published in 1977 and is a listing of restaurants in the Washington, D.C. area with short comments describing each restaurant.
Donald Dresden died on November 11, 1982, at the age of seventy-two.
The Donald Dresden Papers include research material and rough drafts of his biography of the Marquis de Mores, his weekly restaurant critiques, copies of Rapports, France-Etats Unis from 1949 to 1953, copies of le Chemin de Paris and Donald Dresden's Guide to Dining Out in Washington, business correspondence, and many articles written by him.
Series I: The Marquis de Mores: Emperor of the Bad Lands
Correspondence, research notes, rough drafts, and other miscellaneous material
concerning The Marquis de Mores: Emperor of the Bad Lands. Box 1,
Folder 1 - Box 1, Folder 23
Series II:Other Writings
This series contains Dresden’s writings, including his account of his
World War II experiences, Le Chemin de Paris, which was published in
1946. Also included are copies of Rapports, France-Etats Unis, a
periodical edited by Dresden from 1949-1953. The series also contains copies of
his Washington Post restaurant critiques and other periodical articles
written by him, as well as various magazine articles. Box 2, Folder 1 - Box
3, Folder 41
50 photographs were separated and placed in the Orin G. Libby Photograph Collection.
Box 1
Folder
SERIES I: The Marquis de Mores: Emperor of the Bad Lands
Box 2
Folder
SERIES II:Other Writings
Box 3
Folder
50 photographs were separated and placed in the Orin G. Libby Photograph Collection. Many of these are paper reproductions used in the photograph sections of Dresden's book The Marquis de Mores: Emperor of the Bad Lands.
| OGL #1026-1 |
Unidentified slide, probably of the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-2 |
Unidentified slide, probably of the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-3 |
Unidentified group of people, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-4 |
Unidentified group of people, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-5 |
Unidentified group of people, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-6 |
Unidentified group of people, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-7 |
Unidentified group of people, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-8 |
Unidentified group of people, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-9 |
Unidentified group of people, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-10 |
Medora, North Dakota, undated |
| OGL #1026-11 |
Log cabin, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-12 |
Entrance point, undated |
| OGL #1026-13 |
Unidentified scene, probably in the Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-14 |
Marquis off on a hunt, undated |
| OGL #1026-15 |
Marquis, undated |
| OGL #1026-16 |
Portrait of Marquis, undated |
| OGL #1026-17 |
Medora von Hoffman, undated |
| OGL #1026-18 |
Unidentified woman on a horse, undated |
| OGL #1026-19 |
de Mores children, undated |
| OGL #1026-20 |
Marquis, undated |
| OGL #1026-21 |
Arthur T. Packard, undated |
| OGL #1026-22 |
Theodore Roosevelt, undated |
| OGL #1026-23 |
Statue of the Marquis, undated |
| OGL #1026-24 |
Medora, North Dakota, undated |
| OGL #1026-25 |
Original plat of Medora, undated |
| OGL #1026-26 |
Marquis packing plant, undated |
| OGL #1026-27 |
Marquis and Marquise de Mores at the chateau, undated |
| OGL #1026-28 |
Marquis and Marquise de Mores at the chateau, undated |
| OGL #1026-29 |
Badlands, undated |
| OGL #1026-30 |
Deadwood, undated |
| OGL #1026-31 |
Deadwood, undated |
| OGL #1026-32 |
Artist's conception of Deadwood, undated |
| OGL #1026-33 |
Parade, undated |
| OGL #1026-34 |
Chateau, undated |
| OGL #1026-35 |
de Mores' chateau, 1885 |
| OGL #1026-36 |
Ceremonies, undated |
| OGL #1026-37 |
Northern Pacific train, undated |
| OGL #1026-38 |
Northern Pacific train, undated |
| OGL #1026-39 |
Letter to Roosevelt, September 1885 |
| OGL #1026-40 |
Letter from Roosevelt, undated |
| OGL #1026-41 |
Map tracing de Mores' expedition in North Africa, undated |
| OGL #1026-42 |
Advertisement of a stagecoach line, undated |
| OGL #1026-43 |
The Sun, February 1884 |
| OGL #1026-44 |
Last trip of the last Deadwood Coach, 1885 |
| OGL #1026-45 |
Chateau, Medora, undated |
| OGL #1026-46 |
Chateau de Mores, undated |
| OGL #1026-47 |
Northern Pacific train, undated |
| OGL #1026-48 |
Southern Pacific train, undated |
| OGL #1026-49 |
First passenger train into Minnewaukon, North Dakota, 1885 |
| OGL #1026-50 |
Northern Pacific train at St. Paul Union Depot, 1884 |
| Original Donation | First Addition: 1955-1980 |
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