Ruth McBirney Papers, 1897-1991

Overview of the Collection

Title
Ruth McBirney Papers
Dates
1897-1991 (inclusive)
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.

Acquisition Information

Gift, 1991.

Related Materials

See also University Archives, Record Group 50 (Library).

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