Archives West Finding Aid

Primarily business correspondence, the letters in this series were either written to Cushman or her predecessors in the extension service and the university. The letters relate primarily to Cushman's poultry work, extension activities, and work with the Friends of the Montana State College Library. Correspondents include Merrill G. Burlingame, Minnie Paugh, Leslie Heathcote, Frederic B. Linfield, M. L. Wilson, Carl H. Peterson, and Montana State Senator James Griffin. An index card file precedes the letters. These cards were kept by Cushman to track extension service inquiries by county of origin. The cards were completed with the name and address of the writer, the nature of the request, and the date. The actual inquiry letters were apparently discarded by Cushman after recording the information on the cards.

Documents pertaining to the financial, contractual, and general faculty activities of Cushman during and after her tenure as Extension Poultry Specialist for Montana State College.

Carbon copies and original typescripts for various weekly, annual and committee reports produced by Cushman's colleagues in the Extension Service. The reports cover a range of areas from agronomy to botany to farm management to land economics. Some reports contain photographs that pertain directly to the text have been retained to prevent the disruption of context. A few of these reports are duplicated in Accession 00021, the Montana State University Extension Service Records, 1912-1970.

This series pertains to Cushman's writings on the history and development of the Montana Extension Service. Two unpublished manuscripts are present, (“Built for the Land: A History of the Montana Extension Service”) a general accounting of the extension service, and the second (“On State Request”) a more descriptive tale of Cushman’s relationship with the extension service. The series also includes her correspondence, notes, and research pertaining to her inquiries into this topic. Subjects range from dairy to 4H to sheep and cattle, as well as home demonstration, flood irrigation, agronomy, poultry, food and nutrition, etc. In compiling her notes and research, Cushman used questionnaires, in addition to corresponding with former colleagues such as Fred S. Cooley, William J. Hartman, Milburn L. Wilson, Ignatius D. O’Donnell, Arthur J. Ogaard, and Carl H. Peterson. Although some of her final work was partially used by Merrill G. Burlingame in his The Montana Cooperative Extension Service: a history, 1893-1974, neither of Cushman's manuscripts were ever published in their entirety.

This series documents Cushman’s efforts to establish a tribute to colleague Verne Dusenberry in the form of a Plains Indian Center at Montana State University. The correspondence, proposal, and research materials document her interest in improving the education and training of Native Americans through the creation of the Indian Center.

This series contains three card files pertaining to Cushman’s work on poultry; the arrangement of these files preserves the creator’s original organization. Organized by county, the first card file documents Cushman’s visits around the state. The second card file (arranged by owner) and third card file (arranged by breed) pertain to poultry flocks in Montana. This series also includes Cushman’s daily reports (a calendar record of activities), her memo book (a hodgepodge of notes relating to poultry, 4H, and miscellaneous facts), and her notebook (collection of daily reports from 1953-1954, addresses, lists, and reference material on poultry housing, diseases, production, feed, etc.)

This series contains images relating to Cushman’s poultry work. Photographs provide images of individual poultry, flocks of poultry, poultry structures, and testing of poultry. The photographs have been sequentially numbered and identified with the pound sign (#).