Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
Ruth McBirney Papers, 1897-1991
Overview of the Collection
- Title
- Ruth McBirney Papers
- Dates
- 1897-1991 (inclusive)18971991
- Quantity
- 12.25 linear feet, (21 boxes)
- Collection Number
- MSS 113
- Summary
- Chiefly correspondence back and forth between McBirney and her parents in Boise, Idaho, while she was away from home at Whitman College and the University of Washington (1936-1940), working in New York at the Columbia University Music Library (1942-1946), and serving abroad as librarian at the American Library in Paris (1947-1953), before she returned to Boise, where she became head librarian at Boise State University (then Boise Junior College); together with personal appointment books, scrapbooks, personal and travel memorabilia, family papers, genealogies, and photos.
- Repository
-
Boise State University Library, Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives
1910 University Drive
Boise ID
83725
Telephone: 2084263990
archives@boisestate.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Collection is available for research.
- Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Ruth Campbell McBirney was born in Boise, Idaho, on January 16, 1918, the daughter of James F. and Bertha Campbell McBirney. She graduated from Boise High School in 1935, attended Boise Junior College for one year, and entered Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington, in the fall of 1936. She was awarded an A.B. degree from Whitman College in May 1939, graduating with a major in French. She was a soloist with the college glee club. In 1940 she received a bachelor's degree in library science from the University of Washington and returned to Boise where she worked for two years as a librarian at Boise Public Library and Boise Junior College.
In 1942 Miss McBirney went to New York, where she worked for the Music Library at Columbia University. In 1947 she went to France to become reference librarian for the American Library in Paris. She later was appointed head librarian. Ruth McBirney returned to Boise, Idaho, in1954 and became head librarian at Boise Junior College. During her twenty-three years in that post, Boise Junior College became a four-year college and, in 1974, Boise State University. As head librarian, Miss McBirney oversaw the construction of a new library building and built the collection from one of 20,000 volumes to one containing 300,000 volumes.
Miss McBirney retired from Boise State University in 1977. She was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon, the national music honorary, and of the First Presbyterian Church of Boise. She served as president of the Idaho Library Association and the Soroptimist Club of Boise. Ruth McBirney died in Boise, Idaho, on March 20, 1991.
Source: Based on her obituary which appeared in the Idaho Statesman of March 22, 1991, and on information from her contract file in the Boise State University Archives.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The Ruth McBirney papers document the personal life and professional career of a librarian from Boise, Idaho. A graduate of Whitman College and the University of Washington, she worked at Columbia University in New York (1942-1946) and the American Library in Paris (1947-1953) before returning to her hometown, where she became head of the Boise Junior College Library. During the course of her twenty-three years at BSU (1954-1977) she oversaw its transition from a junior college library to one serving a four-year comprehensive state university. Her papers include correspondence, datebooks, scrapbooks, clippings, memorabilia, family papers, and photos, and it is particularly rich in documenting her life and work in post-World War II France.
McBirney's letters home present an almost day-by-day account of personal, social, and cultural life at college and in New York and Paris, as well as descriptions of political and social conditions in France in the immediate post-World War II period. Letters from McBirney's parents record family and social life in Boise and civilian activities on the wartime home front. There is a small file documenting McBirney's financial backing of Marcel Marceau (1949) and two early handbills of his pantomime programs with Pierre Sonnier. Other correspondents include Ian Forbes Fraser.
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Preferred Citation
[item description], Ruth McBirney Papers, Box [number] Folder [number], Boise State University Special Collections and Archives.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in eight series: 1: Biographical and personal papers; 2: Family correspondence; 3: General correspondence; 4: American Library in Paris; 5: Travel memorabilia; 6: Memorabilia (including datebooks); 7: Family papers; and 8: Photos.
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
1: Biographical and personal papersReturn to Top
This series contains a variety of miscellaneous papers relating to various aspects of Ruth McBirney's personal life and library career. While there are several files relating to her career at Boise State, most of the records of her work at the university (including the library's annual reports) are located in the University Archives, Record Group 50 (Library).
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
1 | 1 | Biography |
|
1 | 2 | Clippings |
1945-1965 |
1 | 3 | Obituary |
1991 |
1 | 4 | Death certificate |
1991 |
1 | 5 | Education |
1936-1958 |
1 | 6 | Whitman College |
|
1 | 7 | Columbia University: Course notes |
1942-1943 |
1 | 8 | University of London |
1957 |
1 | 9 | Diplomas (Whitman College; University of Washington) |
1939 1940 |
1 | 10 | New York employment |
1942-1947 |
1 | 11 | Boise Junior College: Library |
1958-1970 |
1 | 12 | Boise Junior College: Library; Clippings |
|
1 | 13 | Boise State College: Clippings, etc. |
|
1 | 14 | Boise State University: Library |
1969-1974 |
1 | 15 | Boise State University: Library; Retirement |
|
1 | 16 | Boise Junior College/Boise State University: Contracts |
1954-1977 |
1 | 17 | Boise State University Foundation |
1974-1991 |
1 | 18 | Ruth McBirney's passports |
|
1 | 19 | Automobile records |
|
1 | 20 | Income tax records |
1941-1977 |
1 | 21 | Finances |
|
1 | 22 | Retirement, Financial |
|
1 | 23 | Japanese porcelain purchases |
1969-1971 |
1 | 24 | Rug purchases |
|
1 | 25 | Stocks and deeds |
1906-1948 |
1 | 26 | Travel |
|
1 | 27 | Whitman College contributions |
2: Family correspondenceReturn to Top
Ruth McBirney's letters home to her parents from Whitman College (1936-1939), University of Washington (1939-1940), New York City (1942-1947), and Paris (1947-1948), present almost day-by-day accounts of her activities while away from Boise. She recounts entertainment and social events, as well as the trials, joys, and routines of daily life, with occasional comments about academics and work. Her letters from France present vivid descriptions of the political and social turmoil of post-war Paris and the vibrant cultural life that continued despite it all, as well as the work of the American Library and her colleagues there. After the death of her mother in 1948, only occasional letters home (to her father and Aunt Clara) are present in the files.
Ruth McBirney saved letters she received from her parents, and they are full of local Boise news and family matters. This series of letters is most complete through 1947, when she left for France. The letters Ruth McBirney's mother wrote during World War II, when Ruth was in New York, offer glimpses of wartime activities on the home front, as well as commentary on social events, local concerts, and activities at the First Presbyterian Church in Boise, of which the McBirneys were active members. Ruth's mother sent her letters more than once a week, while her father was a less frequent correspondent.
Other letters written by Ruth McBirney to her father during later vacation travel (after she moved back to Boise) are found in Series 5, Travel memorabilia.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
2 | 1-6 | From Ruth: Whitman College |
1936-1939 |
2 | 7-8 | From Ruth: University of Washington |
1939-1940 |
2 | 9-13 | From Ruth: New York |
1942-1944 |
3 | 1-5 | From Ruth: New York |
1945-1947 |
3 | 6-13 | From Ruth: Paris |
1947-1952 |
3 | 14 | From Ruth: Summer Trip |
1955 |
3 | 15 | From Ruth: To J.F. McBirney |
1968-1970 |
3 | 16 | From Ruth: To Elizabeth Campbell |
1959-1962 |
3 | 17 | From Ruth: Elizabeth Campbell Heller |
1965-1978 |
3 | 18 | To and From Harry McBirney |
1964-1975 |
3 | 19 | To and From Warren McBirney |
1969-1982 |
4 | 1 | To McBirney family: From Ethel and Jon McBirney |
1932-1935, 1959-1965 |
4 | 2 | To Ruth |
1936 |
4 | 3 | During Denver Trip |
1936 |
4 | 4-16 | To Ruth: Whitman |
1936-1937 |
5 | 1-14 | To Ruth: Whitman |
1938-1939 |
5 | 15 | To Ruth: University of Washington |
1939 |
6 | 1-5 | To Ruth: University of Washington |
1940 |
6 | 6-22 | To Ruth: New York |
1942-1943 |
7 | 1-27 | To Ruth: New York |
1944-1946 |
8 | 1-8 | To Ruth: New York |
1946 |
8 | 9 | To Ruth: New York/Paris |
1947 |
8 | 10-11 | To Ruth: Paris |
1948-1950 |
8 | 12 | To Ruth: From father and Aunt Clara |
1960-1966 |
3: General correspondenceReturn to Top
Other than two files labeled "Professional Correspondence" (relating mainly to job searches and other business and non-personal concerns), the bulk of the material in this series consists of letters Ruth McBirney received from European friends after her return to America in 1953. Among them were Ian Forbes Fraser, who continued as director of the American Library in Paris, and Suzanne Wang (Suzanne Mozère), whom she hired as a cataloger in 1949. Other former colleagues from the American Library also continued to write to her up through the 1980s, relating news of the Library as well as their own personal lives.
Other foreign correspondents include Louise Ferry (in French, from Paris), British bookseller Bertram Rota, and (in the chronological letter files) Helena O'Loghlen (an occasional travel companion, from England) and Kit Atkinson (a mutual friend of Ian Forbes Fraser, also in England). The series also includes a small file of papers documenting the financial support Ruth McBirney gave to Marcel Marceau in Paris at the outset of his career (Box 9, Folder 10). Among the papers in that file are two handbills announcing Marceau's pantomime programs with Pierre Sonnier at the Théâtre de Poche in 1949.
American Library colleague Suzanne Wang Mozère was born in China of a Chinese father and German mother. Her father and at least one of her siblings remained there after the Communist revolution; other family members made their way to Europe and America. Her letters (Box 9, Folders 12 and 13) reflect the experiences of a family separated by the Cold War divide, her father's imprisonment in China, and their unsuccessful attempts to secure his release. Her letters, like those of some of the other correspondents from France, also include comments on the French political crisis in the 1950s and early 1960s brought on by the war in Algeria.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
9 | 1-2 | Professional Correspondence |
1948-1982 |
9 | 3 | Letter to the Editor, Idaho Statesman |
1955 February |
9 | 4 | Boise Redevelopment Agency |
1974 |
9 | 5-7 | Louise Ferry |
1954-1989 |
9 | 8-9 | Ian Forbes Fraser |
1954-1969 |
9 | 10 | Marcel Marceau and Pierre Sonnier |
1949 |
9 | 11 | Bertram Rota |
1953-1957 |
9 | 12-13 | Suzanne Wang (Suzanne Mozère) |
1955-1981 |
9 | 14-29 | Correspondence |
1946-1976 |
10 | 1-5 | Correspondence |
1977-1990 |
10 | 6 | Christmas cards from France |
1954-1968 |
10 | 7 | Christmas cards from elsewhere |
1954-1968 |
10 | 8 | Envelopes |
4: American Library in ParisReturn to Top
Ruth McBirney maintained an active interest in the American Library in Paris even after returning to the United States in 1953. Most of the material in this series dates after her return to Boise. The Library's 30th anniversary brochure (Folder 15) contains her picture as the institution's head librarian; otherwise the only other papers in this series contemporaneous with her service there are some of the clippings in Folder 9. Extensive correspondence with former colleagues at the Library (notably Ian Forbes Fraser and Suzanne Wang Mozère) is located in Series 3 (General correspondence), and Ruth McBirney's own comments on the Library during her tenure there can be found in her letters home to her parents (Series 2). Photos of the Library and her colleagues are located in Series 8 (Photos).
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
10 | 9 | Clippings |
1950s |
10 | 10 | Minutes and Reports |
1954-1959 |
10 | 11 | Minutes and Reports |
1960-1965 |
10 | 12 | Minutes and Reports |
1966-1969 |
10 | 13 | Minutes and Reports |
1970-1975 |
10 | 14 | Correspondence |
1953-1990 |
10 | 15 | Publications |
1951-1989 |
5: TravelsReturn to Top
This series consists chiefly of letters Ruth McBirney wrote to her father and other relatives during vacation trips from 1956 on; together with miscellaneous travel memorabilia. Photos from many of her trips are included in Series 8 (Photos). The lecture notes (Folder 1) recapitulate her work at the American Library in Paris and contain some of her impressions of the country and the people. They appear to have been written shortly after her return, for presentation to an audience.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
11 | 1 | Lecture Notes: France |
circa 1954 |
11 | 2 | Maps: Paris |
|
11 | 3 | Letters from Ruth: Mexico |
1956 |
11 | 4 | Letters from Ruth: New York/London |
1957 Summer |
11 | 5 | Letters from Ruth: Europe |
1959 Summer |
11 | 6 | Letters from Ruth: Europe |
1961 Summer |
11 | 7 | Letters from Ruth: United States |
1962 Summer |
11 | 8 | Letters from Ruth: Europe |
1965 Summer |
11 | 9 | Miscellaneous European Memorabilia |
1978 Summer |
11 | 10 | Letters from Ruth: Egypt |
1979 |
11 | 11 | Letters from Ruth: China |
1980 |
11 | 12 | Letters to/from Ruth: Spain/Portugal |
1982 |
11 | 13 | Miscellaneous India Memorabilia |
1984 |
11 | 14 | Dried Flowers |
|
11 | 15 | Travel Slides |
|
Map Case | |||
7 | Maps of Paris |
6: MemorabiliaReturn to Top
Among the notable items in this series are Ruth McBirney's date books, or pocket diaries, from 1947 to 1966 (Box 13). By and large they are a curt record of social activities ("Dinner with Louise," "Races at Longchamps, 2 pm,"), and rarely are there any other comments. Hand in hand with her letters home, however, they document an active social and cultural life during her years in Paris, 1947-1953. A childhood diary (in Box 14), which she kept intermittently from the age of ten until she was nineteen, are full of comments on family, friends, school work, and news (she made particular note of the closure of Boise's banks in August 1932 and the impact on her family's finances, for example ), as well as introspective personal reflections on her life and future. The series also contains notes and texts of talks she gave to the Saturday Fortnightly Club, a women's study club in Boise; memorabilia from Boise High School, Whitman College, the P.E.O. Club, and Soroptimist Club; concert programs from Europe and America; and her pearls.
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
11 | 16 | Memorabilia, Boise High School |
1931-1935 |
11 | 17 | P.E.O. Club: Chapter "R", Boise, Idaho |
1979-1988 |
11 | 18 | Soroptimist Club; Boise, Idaho |
1967 |
11 | 19 | Saturday Fortnightly Club, Boise, Idaho |
1969-1988 |
11 | 20 | Saturday Fortnightly presentation: China |
1980 |
11 | 21 | Clippings, China |
|
11 | 22 | Saturday Fortnightly presentation: Alice Springs, Australia |
1983? |
11 | 23 | Saturday Fortnightly presentation: Crete |
1985 January |
11 | 24 | Saturday Fortnightly presentation: Lapwai Mission and the McBeth Sisters |
1988 |
11 | 26 | Saturday Fortnightly presentation: Alice Fletcher, Nez Perce Indians |
1989 |
11 | 26 | Saturday Fortnightly Unfinished presentation; Early Idaho Newspapers |
|
12 | 1 | Concert Programs: Boise |
1933-1935 |
12 | 2 | Memorabilia; Boise Junior College |
1936-1941 |
12 | 3 | First Presbyterian Church of Boise |
1937-1969 |
12 | 4 | Knit For Victory |
194? |
12 | 5 | Programs: United States |
|
12 | 6 | Programs: Europe |
|
12 | 7 | Programs: New York City |
1944-1979 |
12 | 8 | Programs: England |
1947-1978 |
12 | 9 | Programs and memorabilia: France |
1947-1948 |
12 | 10 | Programs and memorabilia: France |
1955-1978 |
12 | 11 | Concert Programs: Boise |
1956-1969 |
13 | Date books (pocket diaries) |
1947-1957 1959-1962 1965-1966 | |
14 | Diary (written in 1905 green diary book "Lest We Forget") |
1928-1937 | |
14 | New Testament and Psalms (gift of her parents) |
1926 | |
14 | String of pearls |
||
14 | Small address books (in one envelope) |
||
14 | Address book |
1979 | |
14 | Mileage register |
1950-1955 | |
14 | Health and garden journal |
1982-1989 | |
14 | Chapter R (P.E.O.) yearbooks |
1978/1979-1986/1987 | |
14 | Membership directories, Idaho State Chapter, P.E.O. |
1979 1983 | |
15 | Scrapbook of clippings, cards, programs (Boise Junior College and Whitman College) |
1934-1939 | |
16 | Waiilaptu (Whitman College yearbooks) |
1937-1939 | |
16 | Whitman College Class of 1939 50th Reunion booklet |
||
16 | The A Capella Chorus Book, by Christiansen and Cain |
1932 |
7: Family papersReturn to Top
This series contains papers of Ruth McBirney's parents, J.F. and Bertha Campbell McBirney, and genealogical notes and compilations on the McBirney, Campbell, and Tiedgen families. Miss McBirney's paternal grandfather, Thomas McBirney (1837-1932), was born in Northern Ireland, settled and married in Iowa (where her father was born), and eventually relocated to Boise, Idaho, as did most of his adult children in the first decade of the 20th century. Ruth's maternal grandparents, J.M. and Mary Campbell, also moved from Iowa to Boise about 1900. The basic charts outlining her parents' siblings are found in Box 17, Folder 16. Old family photos are located in Series 8 (Photos).
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
17 | 1 | J.F. McBirney and Bertha Campbell bridal book |
1916 |
17 | 2 | Bertha McBirney: Documents |
1897-1948 |
17 | 3 | Bertha McBirney: Travel logs |
1936-1942 |
17 | 4 | Bertha McBirney: Sympathy correspondence at her death |
1948 |
17 | 5 | J. Frank McBirney: Documents |
1902-1973 |
17 | 6 | J. Frank McBirney: Deeds |
1906-1962 |
17 | 7 | J. Frank McBirney: Boise Sewer Rate Board |
1951-1962 |
17 | 8 | J. Frank McBirney: Sympathy correspondence at his death |
1973 |
17 | 9 | J. Frank McBirney estate |
1973-1974 |
17 | 10 | McBirney family expenses |
1935-1938 1945 1946 |
17 | 11 | McBirney home in Boise: Sprinkler system |
1970 1984 |
17 | 12 | Campbell family papers |
|
17 | 13 | McBirney family memorabilia (mainly obituaries and announcements) |
|
17 | 14 | McBirney family genealogy, by Stanley McBirney |
1961 1970 |
17 | 15 | McBirney and Tiedgen genealogy: Correspondence with Stanley McBirney |
1956-1982 |
17 | 16 | McBirney and Tiedgen genealogy: Notes and documents |
|
17 | 17 | Mary Campbell: Sympathy correspondence at her death |
1934-1935 |
17 | 18 | H.R. McBirney: Farm accounts |
1932-1955 |
17 | 19 | Clara E. McBirney estate |
1969 |
17 | 17 | Thomas McBirney estate |
1920 1932 |
17 | 18 | Helen Lambson estate |
1971-1973 |
17 | 19 | Susan McBirney Randall |
1967-1968 |
17 | 20 | Lois and Doris Randall |
1987 |
18 | Memorial book for J. Frank McBirney |
1973 | |
18 | Weather records kept by J. Frank McBirney 5 volumes
|
1943-1966 | |
18 | 2 travel logbooks kept by Bertha Campbell McBirney (?) |
||
18 | Small commonplace book |
||
18 | Record of family vacations (in "GE 1925") |
1925-1947 | |
18 | Leather wallet with Boise Natatorium design |
||
Map Case | |||
7 | Diplomas and certificates of J.F. McBirney |
8: PhotographsReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | |||
19 | Family photo album |
1907-1935 | |
19 | Family photo album |
1936-circa 1940 | |
photo | |||
20 | 1-20 | McBirney family photos |
|
20 | 21-36 | Campbell family photos |
|
20 | 37 | Christian Endeavour picnic, Boise |
1908 |
20 | 38-58 | J.F. McBirney |
|
20 | 59-74 | Bertha Campbell McBirney |
|
20 | 75-123 | Ruth McBirney |
to 1940 |
20 | 124-151 | Ruth McBirney (including New York City) |
1940-1984 |
20 | 152-184 | Family and friends |
|
20 | 185-188 | Boise State University |
|
20 | 189-205 | Idaho |
|
20 | 206-234 | American Library in Paris and colleagues |
|
20 | 235-272 | Travel in France and Europe |
1947-1953 |
20 | 273-292 | Travels (color snapshots) |
1978-1980 |
20 | 293-300 | Family camping and outdoor activities |
pre-1940 |
20 | 301-320 | American Library in Paris, branches in Toulouse and Montpellier |
1951 |
Idaho Council of Academic LibrariesReturn to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates | |
---|---|---|---|
Box | Folder | ||
21 | 1-3 | Correspondence |
1967-1976 |
21 | 4 | Salary Comparisons |
1970-1975 |
21 | 5 | Idaho State University Library, Senior Staff Meeting Minutes |
1973-1977 |
21 | 6 | University of Idaho Library, Staff Meeting Minutes |
1974-1977 |
21 | 7 | Computerization Report |
1976-1977 |
21 | 8 | Hay Study and Salary Plan |
1976 |
21 | 9 | Library Visits Report |
1974 |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Academic librarians
- Social interaction
- Universities and Colleges
- Whitman College
- Women--Idaho
Personal Names
- Fraser, Ian Forbes, 1907-1969
- Marceau, Marcel
Corporate Names
- American Library in Paris
Geographical Names
- Boise (Idaho)
- Paris (France)
Form or Genre Terms
- Scrapbooks