Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
Virginia S. Burlingame Papers, 1954-1989
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Burlingame, Virginia S.
- Title
- Virginia S. Burlingame Papers
- Dates
-
1954-1989 (inclusive)19541989
- Quantity
- 1.2 linear feet of shelf space
- Collection Number
- MC 275
- Summary
- This collection consists of manuscripts and research notes by Virginia S. Burlingame concerning Johnny Healy, his life and family, mining around Florence, Idaho Territory, in the 1860s, Fort Whoop-Up and the whiskey trade, Fort Benton, Montana Territory, the Klondike gold rush and mining in Alaska; and a manuscript entitled "John Barr, River Pilot" by John Linton Struble (Virginia S. Burlingame's pen name). [Photographs transferred to Photo Archives].
- Repository
-
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov - Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
Virginia Struble was born in West Liberty, Iowa, on August 16, 1900, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. L.W. Struble. She grew up in Davenport, Iowa, where she graduated from high school. She attended Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois, and got a library degree from Columbia University. After getting her degree she taught and was on the library staff at Kansas Teachers College and at the University of Iowa. In September 1936 she married Merrill G. Burlingame, professor of history at Montana State College in Bozeman. The couple had one son Ray Burlingame. Virginia researched and wrote widely on Montana and Western history, primarily under the pseudonym John Linton Struble. As Struble, she wrote an article on Bishop Tuttle for the winter 1956 issue of Montana The Magazine of Western History, entitled "The People's Bishop". The following year she published a children's story entitled "Cactus." Her largest research project was a biography of John J. Healy. A portion of her research on Healy was published by Idaho Yesterdays as "Johnny Healy Strikes it Rich." She also wrote Clad with Zeal as a Cloke on the history of the Christian Women's Board of Missions and the Christian Women's Fellowship in Montana. Together with her husband, she wrote One Hundred Years of Disciples in Montana (1964) on the Disciples of Christ. She died November 19, 1993. Her husband died a year later.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
The core of this collection is a series of three book-length manuscripts: two on John J. Healy, a miner, Fort Benton sheriff, and Alaska entrepreneur; and one on John Barr, a Montana and Alaska river boat captain. In addition, the collection contains general correspondence (1954-1989) with historical societies, publishers, descendants of John J. Healy, and others; several shorter manuscripts; and extensive research notes, roughly sorted by topic. There is also a list of birds seen in Bozeman during the Christmas Bird Count of 1973.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection
General Correspondence Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 1 | A-E (correspondents include
Vicarate of Alaska; University of Alberta Library; Binfords and Mort,
publishers; Scoop Conlon; G. Rider Davis, mayor of Fort MacLeod, Alberta; R.N.
DeArmond; Hugh A. Dempsey; Dodd, Mead and Company) |
1954-1978 |
1 / 2 | F-K (correspondents include
May G. Flanagan; Georgia G. Fooks; Edward Freed; Nora E. Harber; Harper and
Brothers, publishers; Houghton Mifflin Company, publishers; Idaho Historical
Society's H.J. Swinney; Jesuit Historical Archives; Dick Kilroy) |
1954-1983 |
1 / 3 | M (correspondents include
Maclean's Magazine; Macmillan Company; McClelland and Stewart, Ltd.; Kathleen
Keyes McDonnell; David McKay Company; Regina Mettler; Montana Historical
Society's Virginia Walton, Rita McDonald, Anne McDonnell, and Michael S.
Kennedy; John Motherwell; James E. Murphy) |
1955-1989 |
1 / 4 | N-S (correspondents include
New York Public Library; Oregon Historical Society; Pacific Northwest
Bibliographic Center; Random House, Inc.; Clara Roberts; Sara de Sallwood;
Salmon, Idaho, Recorder- Herald; Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, Inc.; Paul F.
Sharp; Lee Silliman) |
1954-1972 |
1 / 5 | T-Y (correspondents include
True: The Man's Magazine; True West; United States Board of Geographic Names;
A.G. Virtue; Helen B. West; William Morrow & Company; Kathryn Winslow;
Vicarate of Whitehorse; Wisconsin State Historical Society; Yale University
Library) |
1954-1961 |
Miscellaneous Correspondence Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 6 | Photocopies of historic
correspondence (correspondents include John J. Healy; Walter Truell; Granville
Stuart) |
1873-1898? |
Research Notes Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 7 | Alaska and Yukon
|
1880s- 1900s |
1 / 8 | Alaska and Yukon Railway;
Copper River and Northwestern Railway |
1901-1906 |
2 / 1 | John Barr |
|
2 / 2 | Jack Dalton |
|
2 / 3 | Fort Whoop-Up; Whoop-Up
Trail; Fort Slide, etc. |
1875-1878 |
2 / 4 | John J. Healy |
1860s-1908 |
2 / 5 | John J. Healy at Fort Walsh;
Sitting Bull |
1877 |
2 / 6 | John J. Healy at Sun River
|
1866 |
2 / 7 | John J. Healy bibliographic
information |
|
2 / 8 | John J. Healy: Bloods
protect Healy from Piegans |
1869 |
2 / 9 | John J. Healy chronology
|
1840-1908 |
2 / 10 | John J. Healy deposition
before Alaskan Boundary Tribunal (includes summary of his work in Alaska)
|
1903 |
2 / 11 | John J. Healy down the
Missouri River |
1862 |
2 / 12 | John J. Healy emigrant train
through Idaho |
1860 |
2 / 13 | John J. Healy family
|
|
2 / 14 | John J. Healy in Alaska
|
1880s-1908 |
2 / 15 | John J. Healy in Fort Benton
|
1867-1880s |
2 / 16 | John J. Healy in Virginia
City and Bannack |
1864-1866 |
2 / 17 | John J. Healy mining in
Canada and the Belt Mountains |
u1883-1888 |
2 / 18 | John J. Healy: North
American Transportation and Trading Company (NATT) |
1894-1908? |
2 / 19 | John J. Healy obituaries and
death certificate |
1908 |
2 / 20 | John J. Healy's old Fort
Benton friends |
|
2 / 21 | John J. Healy: other Healys
(non-relatives) |
n.d. |
2 / 22 | John J. Healy: "Roping a
Wolf" (interview of Healy by Forest Cressey) |
n.d. |
2 / 23 | Joe Healy (Potaina, Blood
Indian adopted son of John J. Healy) |
n.d. |
2 / 24 | Hudson's Bay Company
|
|
2 / 25 | Klondike background
information |
|
2 / 26 | Klondike hospitals and
missions including Good Samaritan Hospital |
1898 |
2 / 27 | List of residents of
Montana, winter 1862-1863 by Edwin Purple, 1870 (more complete than
Contributions vol.1) |
1862-1863 |
2 / 28 | Nome, Alaska |
1862-1863 |
2 / 29 | Northwest Mounted Police in
Alberta and Yukon |
1890s |
2 / 30 | "Story ideas from Alaska and
Klondike" |
n.d. |
2 / 31 | "To check" (sources to
verify) |
n.d. |
2 / 32 | Voyages of steamboats Alice
Blanchard and Portus B. Weare |
1880-1894 |
Writings Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 1-4 | "John Barr, River Pilot"
|
n.d. |
3 / 5-7 | John J. Healy manuscript:
"Fiddle-Footed Irishman" |
n.d. |
3 / 8-10 | John J. Healy manuscript:
[untitled] |
n.d. |
3 / 11 | John J. Healy series: #2-7
|
n.d. |
3 / 12 | "John J. Healy's Alaskan
Adventure", Alaska Journal |
1978 |
3 / 13 | "John J. Healy, Founder of
Fort Whoop-Up" (article and outline for book) |
n.d. |
3 / 14 | John J. Healy in Idaho:
(includes "Healy and Grigsby Strike it Rich", "Johnnie Healy Strikes it Rich",
and 2 version of "There's Gold In Idaho"; last article written on back of
portions of manuscripts on Disciples of Christ in Montana and the history of
Montana State University) |
n.d. |
3 / 15 | "John Jerome Healy" (short
biography apparently written as prospectus for juvenile book) |
n.d. |
3 / 16 | "In the Soup" (article,
variation of portion of John J. Healy book re trading with Blood Indians)
|
n.d. |
3 / 17 | "Targhee Cemetery" (re
Henry`s Lake, Idaho) |
n.d. |
3 / 18 | Short stories and essays
(includes "A Business of his Own", "A Knock on the Door at Night", "How
Grandmother Killed the Weasel", "Patients I Have Known", "Bobbie's
Accomplishments", "Indian Letter", and "Indian Cooking") |
n.d. |
Miscellany Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 19 | Acknowledgments |
n.d. |
3 / 20 | Christmas bird count
summary, Bozeman |
1973 |
Transfers Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
3 / 21 | Lists of transfers of
photographs to Photo Archives and books to Library |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Kainah indians
- Missouri River
- Ornithologists
- Steamboats
Geographical Names
- Alaska
- Fort Benton (Mont.)
- Fort Whoop-up (Lethbridge, Alta.)
- Hentry's Lake, (Idaho)
- Idaho
- Klondike River Vally (Yukon)
- Whoop-up Trail
- Yukon Territory