The Collector’s Chat at our August 25th Salon will be given by CJ Peterson. He is one of the founders of Nature’s Fusions, a full-service essential oil, cosmetic, and supplement manufacturing company, and sits on the Board of Directors for the Rollins School of Entrepreneurship at BYU. However, CJ’s passion lies in tangible bits of history and he has collected books for his entire adult life. Peterson started Kona Books as a boutique book hunting service in 2009 while living in Chicago. After moving to Utah and attending BYU, he expanded his collection and his clientele until eventually opening a bookstore and an art gallery, Artifacts of History, and The Artifacts Gallery in the Provo Towne Centre Mall in 2021. Today his personal collection reflects the offerings found in his shop and gallery: the history of Utah, Western Expansion, the LDS Church, music, and Native Americans.
CJ will be talking about his collection and what draws him to collect. He will show a number of rare books owned by early Utah Pioneers such as Brigham Young and Wilford Woodruff. He will bring a trumpet owned and played by Louis Armstrong, an interesting artifact from the Pony Express, and some early Western art by artists like Charles Marian Russell.
