Victor E. Thorsell Papers

Victor E. Thorsell Papers, 1908-1969

Overview of the Collection

Title: Victor E. Thorsell Papers
Dates: 1908-1969 (inclusive)
19081969
Quantity: 2 linear feet, (3 boxes)
Collection Number: MSS 007
Summary: Personal papers of a miscellaneous nature, photos, and a collection of 35 building trade catalogs and manuals from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. Includes yearly listings of books Thorsell read (1938-1962); family clippings; a few papers relating to Cole school district (Boise, Idaho) politics (1920s); a few papers relating to politics of the Nampa and Meridian (Idaho) Irrigation District and management of the neighborhood irrigation works (1921-1966); plans and material lists for his own home (1914); and about 30 photos taken during the construction of Arrowrock Dam near Boise, Idaho (1912-1915).
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 Humanitiess

Biographical NoteReturn to Top

Victor E. Thorsell was born in Cannon Falls, Minnesota on May 13, 1879. His father John (who retained the Swedish spelling of his last name, Thoorsell) moved the family to St. Paul in 1889, where he worked in the furniture and undertaking business until opening his own funeral home in 1893. Victor, the eldest son, attended school in St. Paul and helped with the family business. Between 1908 and 1913, Victor Thorsell seems to have worked on various U.S. Reclamation Bureau projects in the Midwest and West; the collection contains postcards addressed to him in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, Minatare, Nebraska, and Missoula, Montana, during those years. Exactly what sort of work he did is not clear; however there is a letter in the collection from O.T. Reedy, a Reclamation Bureau engineer, offering him a job in Grand Junction, Colorado, in 1913 as a surveyman, with the potential for promotion to the position of instrument man. Thorsell, however, came to Boise, Idaho, to work on Arrowrock Dam instead, perhaps induced to do so by the presence in nearby Nampa, Idaho, of Helga Lindquist, a friend of his from Minnesota, who was there living with her sister and brother-in-law.

Victor and Helga were married in Nampa on November 27, 1913. In 1914 they built a home in a rural neighborhood on the outskirts of Boise, on what was then called Ora Dell Road (now Allumbaugh Street). The home was their residence for more than fifty years, and they witnessed the transition of the rural neighborhood into a busy suburban one, now part of Boise proper. A man with a practical bent, Victor Thorsell worked as a carpenter, pipefitter, and as a building contractor in the Boise area. According to his obituary, he worked on the construction of Black Canyon Dam, near Emmett, Idaho, in the 1920s. He was also active in the management of his neighborhood's water users association (managing irrigation). Beginning in 1938 he kept a year-by-year list of the library books he read. The Thorsells had no children but were close to Helga's relatives in Idaho. Helga Thorsell died in a nursing home in 1966; Victor died in his home on Allumbaugh Street on February 21, 1969.

Content DescriptionReturn to Top

It is a small collection consisting of one box of papers, one box of photos, and one box of building trade catalogs and manuals. The papers are scattered in nature, touching on various aspects of his life but not documenting any of those activities in much detail. Perhaps the most revealing file contains the handwritten lists of library books he read (Box 1, Folder 7). His choices were eclectic. Among the more than 200 titles on the lists are the practical (The Fluorescent Lighting Manual, in 1942), the scientific (Explaining the Atom, 1948), the historical (Mr. Lincoln's Admirals, 1957), and the biographical (Malone's Jefferson the Virginian, 1948), but books on contemporary political, social, and economic issues seem to predominate: Seven Kinds of Inflation (1938), Why Meddle in Europe? (1940), The Vital Center (1950), and Two Thirds of a Nation (1953), among them. He checked out books on Sweden and on psychological and religious issues (Jung's Psychology and Religion in 1939; Fromm's Psychoanalysis and Religion in 1951). He read two books by John F. Kennedy in 1959, While England Slept and Profiles in Courage. He did not record which library the books came from, but more than likely they were from the old Carnegie library in downtown Boise. Among the photos in the collection is one of Thorsell reading (Photo 004).

Other notable items are approximately 30 photos (Real photo postcards) showing the progress of the building of Arrowrock Dam on the Boise River, which at the time was the tallest dam in the world. Thorsell worked on that project during his first years in Idaho. There are scattered papers from his local water users association, revealing occasional glimpses of the internal politics of the Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District as well as the practical concerns of his local lateral's water users association. A similar small file of papers exist on the Cole School District which served his neighborhood. There are scattered pieces of correspondence and some family newspaper clippings and photos. As he aged, Thorsell began collecting clippings about centenarians, including Anton Gordon, a Boise man who lived to be 111 years old (1848-1959).

Rounding out the collection are approximately 35 building trade catalogs and manuals from the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, plus a 1922 manual for Ford cars and trucks.

Use of the CollectionReturn to Top

Preferred Citation

Boise State University, Albertsons Library, Special Collections and Archives, Victor E. Thorsell Papers, MSS 7, [item description].

Administrative InformationReturn to Top

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mr. Thorsell's estate, 1969

Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top

Container(s)		Description	Dates
Box	Folder
1	1	Hand-written will and Obituary	1923, 1969
1	2	Fiftieth wedding anniversary announcement	1963
1	3	Helga E. Thorsell funeral card	1966
1	4	Family clippings: Thorsell and Sons funeral home history	1923
1	5	Family clippings: Turner anniversary (Helga Thorsell's sister)	1946
1	6	Family clippings: Lindquist anniversary (Helga Thorsell's brother)	1951
1	7	Victor Thorsell's yearly lists of books read	1932-1962
1	8	Swedish names (lists)
1	9-13	Correspondence: Postcards received	1908-1919
1	14	Correspondence: Letter to Winifred Turner (niece)
1	15	Correspondence: Letter from O.T. Reedy	1913
1	16	Correspondence: Letters from F.D. Lindquist	1921-1922
1	17	Correspondence: Boise State College (Dwane Kern)	1968
1	18	Correspondence: Address book
1	19	Financial records: Bank pass books	1912-1969
1	20	Financial records: Miscellaneous	1962-1969
1	21	Financial records: Thorsell estate, Boise State College (Dwane Kern)	1969
1	22	Thorsell home: Construction costs and plans; materials lists	1914
1	23	Ora Dell Road (later Allumbaugh Street): historical note
1	24	Cole School district: miscellaneous papers
1	25	Irrigation: Rust Lateral Water Users Association papers	1921-1948
1	26	Irrigation: Elderado Water Users Assocation papers	1951-1956
1	27	Irrigation: Rust Lateral maps
1	28	Irrigation: Rust Lateral water schedules	1951-1956
1	29	Irrigation: Manuals (USDA Farmers Bulletins 813 and 1683)	1917, 1932
1	30	Clippings: Boise Bench news and residents
1	31	Clippings: Anton Gordon
1	32	Clippings: Centenarians
1	33	Clippings: Judge Chase A. Clark	1965
1	34	Clippings: Red Wing, Minnesota (Helga Thorsell's home town)
1	35	Main Line for Boise (railroad brochure)	1922
1	36	Specifications for water heating plant...for A.F. Montandon
	photographs
2	001-007	Photograph: Victor E. Thorsell (see also Photo 201, below)
2		Photograph: Family photos (?)
2		Photograph: Color snapshots (Thorsell in 012 and 013)
2		Photograph: O.T. Reedy family
2		Photograph: Idaho State Capitol
2		Photograph: Barber Dam, Boise
2		Photograph: Black Canyon Dam, Emmett, Idaho (see also Photo 205, below)
2		Photograph: Diversion Dam, Boise
2		Photograph: Bethany Presbyterian Church
2		Photograph: Mining and dredging scenes near Idaho City, Idaho
2		Photograph: Table Rock, Boise
2		Photograph: Idaho scenes, including Yeager's Ranch
2		Photograph: Arrowrock Dam (1912-1915) (see also Photos 202-204, below)
2		Photograph: Barn Bluff, Red Wing, Minnesota
2		Photograph: Cannon Falls Dam, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
2		Photograph: Montana scenes
2		Photograph: Pathfinder Dam construction, Wyoming
2		Photograph: Head gate, Whalen, Wyoming
2		Photograph: Iron mines, Sunrise, Wyo.
2		Photograph: Unidentified dam and construction scenes
2		Photograph: Unidentified
2		Photograph: Miscellaneous commercial postcards
2		Photograph: Grand Coulee dam
2		Photograph: Victor and Helga Thorsell
2		Photograph: Arrowrock Dam
2		Photograph: Black Canyon Dam, Emmett, Idaho (clipping)
3		Building trade catalogs and manuals: Better Buildings, 10th ed (American Sheet and Tin Plate Company), no date Better Buildings, 11th ed (American Sheet and Tin Plate Company), no date Better Buildings, 11th ed (American Sheet and Tin Plate Company), no date Building Ideas, Boise Payette Lumber Company, 1916 Certigrade Handbook of Red Cedar Shingles, 1940 Choosing the Garage, no date Concrete Improvements Arund the Home, no date Concrete on the Farm, 1919 The Disston Saw, Tool and File Book, 1925 The End of Rust Troubles--Brass Pipe, no date File Facts, Simonds, 1927 Ford Manual, 1922 Gilbert and Barker Gasoline and Oil Storage Systems, Catalog No. 5, no date Hacksaw-ology, no date Heatilator Plan Book of Modern Fireplaces, 1929 Heatilator, The Fireplace that Circulates Heat, 1934 Heating and Air Conditioning the Postwar Home, 1946 High-Early-Strength Concrete, no date High-Early-Strength Concrete for Roads, Streets, and Bridges, 1928 Hollow Tile for the Home, 1920 The Home Garage of Concrete Masonry, no date House Framing Details, 1929 Instruction Book for Ward's Windsor Pipe Furnace, 1928 A Lifetime of Winter Comfort and Health (Nesbit Moist Heat), 1928 Maximum Spans for Joists and Rafters, 1930 The Modern Garage of Hollow Building Tile, 1920? Pacific Northwest Millwork Catalogue, No. 4, 1927 Painting: Repairs and Utilities (U.S. War Dept. Technical Manual), 1946 Pipe and Fittings, no date Public Address System, no date A Real Home: Suggestions to Home Builders (Copper and Brass Research Association), 1929 Southern Pine: The Supreme Structural Wood of the World, 1927 St. Paul Foundry Company, Bulletin D, no date Steel Carpenters' Squares (Eagle Square), no date The Story of Oak Floors, 1928 West Coast Woods, 1928 Western Electric Public Address Systems, 1929 Westinghouse Nofuze Load Centers, no date

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

Books and reading
Reclamation of Land

Corporate Names

Nampa and Meridian Irrigation District (Idaho)

Form or Genre Terms

Photographs

Archives West Finding Aid

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