Archives West Finding Aid
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Montana Study Research Collection, 1943-1954
Overview of the Collection
- Creator
- Montana Study research collection
- Title
- Montana Study Research Collection
- Dates
- 1943-1954 (inclusive)19431954
- Quantity
- 3.5 linear ft.
- Collection Number
- Mss 233
- Summary
- The Montana Study was a sociological project conducted by the University of Montana with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. Records include correspondence, conference materials, local study group records, minutes, reports, speeches and writings, and miscellany.
- Repository
-
University of Montana, Mansfield Library, Archives and Special Collections
Archives and Special Collections
Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library
University of Montana
32 Campus Dr. #9936
59812-9936
Missoula, MT
Telephone: 406-243-2053
library.archives@umontana.edu - Access Restrictions
-
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana--Missoula.
- Additional Reference Guides
-
Finding aid in the repository.
- Languages
- English
Historical NoteReturn to Top
The Montana Study was a project conducted by the University of Montana in Missoula with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation. The project was conceived by Ernest O. Melby, Chancellor of the University of Montana System. He believed that by creating a common awareness of Montana's heritage, the people of the state would develop a deeper devotion to the welfare of the community, state, and country.
In the early 1940s, Montana State College in Bozeman conducted a Rockefeller Foundation-funded project entitled "Northern Plains in a World of Change." At a meeting in Bozeman, Chancellor Melby met David H. Stevens of the Rockefeller Foundation. They worked together to create the Montana Study. Melby and Stevens consulted Baker Brownell of Northwestern University, a noted authority on problems of rural life. They created a project that would focus the University on problems of rural life and find ways of stabilizing the family and the small community. Melby resigned as Chancellor in 1944, became the president of Montana State University in Missoula, and directed the Montana Study. He hired Baker Brownell as project director. Brownell was assisted by Paul Meadows, a sociologist from Northwestern University, and Joseph Kinsey Howard, an author from Great Falls.
The Montana Study was conducted in three phases: a community field work phase using local community study groups, a special projects phase, and a leadership training phase. Local study groups were set up only in towns which requested them. Eventually groups met in Lonepine, Darby, Stevensville, Conrad, Lewistown, Libby, Hamilton, Victor, and two on the Flathead Indian Reservation: the Dixon group consisting of white community members, part-blood Indians, and Bureau of Indian Affairs staff and the Full Blood Flathead Indian Group at Arlee. The local study groups met to discuss the problems of their local communities, to study their local history, and to propose solutions. Several of the groups produced historical pageants as a way of raising the self-awareness of the community.
The Montana Study officially ended July 19, 1947, due in part to political controversy over its mildly left wing orientation and its academic image. However, many of the people involved in the Study continued working on the project without official funding, and the Montana Study continued to function on an informal basis into the early 1950s.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
This is an artificial collection, created by photocopying records from several different institutions to gather in one place all pertinent records of The Montana Study. Records include correspondence (1943-1954) among Baker Brownell, Bert Hanson, Ruth Robinson, Joseph Kinsey Howard, the Rockefeller Foundation, the University of Montana, and others concerning the planning of the grant, the administration of the Study, and the progress of the various local study groups. In addition, there are conference materials; employee records; financial records; records of local study groups in Arlee, Conrad, Darby, Dixon, Hamilton, Lewistown, Libby, Lonepine, Stevensville, Troy, Victor, and Woodman; scattered minutes; organizational materials; reports; speeches and writings by Brownell, Hanson, Robinson, Howard, and others; and miscellany. A small subgroup of Secondary Materials includes a Masters thesis by Carla Homstad entitled Small Town Eden : the Montana Study (University of Montana, 1987) and a manuscript of the 4th edition of Life in Montana, as seen in Wibaux, a Small Community by John L. Schwechton and Ray Gold (1976).
Use of the CollectionReturn to Top
Alternative Forms Available
Contributing institutions hold their original records. Special Collections and Archives at Montana State University-Bozeman and the Montana Historical Society in Helena also hold copies of this photocopied collection.
Restrictions on Use
Any citation of this collection must include a credit to the source of the original. Publication of any material from the collection must have permission of source of original.
Preferred Citation
[Name of document or photograph number], Montana Study Research Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
The Montana Study Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
General Correspondence
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
1/1-11 | Miscellaneous (correspondents
include Ernest Melby, University of Montana, David H. Stevens, Rockefeller
Foundation, Baker Brownell, Joseph Kinsey Howard, et al.) |
1943-1945 |
2/1-10 | Miscellaneous (correspondents
include George Selke, University of Montana, David H. Stevens, Rockefeller
Foundation, Baker Brownell, Joseph Kinsey Howard, G.M. Brandborg, Ruth W.
Robinson, Frank H. Smith, Bert Hansen, et al.) |
1946-1947 |
3/1-10 | Miscellaneous (correspondents
include George Selke, University of Montana, David H. Stevens, Rockefeller
Foundation, Baker Brownell, Joseph Kinsey Howard, G.M. Brandborg, Ruth W.
Robinson, Frank H. Smith, Richard Posten, et al.) |
1947-1954 |
Conference Materials
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
4/1 | Conference on American
Thought, Princeton, N.J. |
May 1944 |
4/2 | "First Carload Dinner for the
Montana Study groups" |
1946 |
4/3 | Roundup of Regional Arts
conferences |
1950-1952 |
4/4 | Rural Education and Life
Conference, Helena |
1946 |
Diaries |
||
Box/Folder | ||
4/5 | Daily log of activities
|
April 1944- July 1947 |
Employment Records |
||
Box/Folder | ||
4/6 | Payroll |
1944-1947 |
4/7 | Staff appointment
recommendations |
1945-1946 |
Financial Records |
||
Box/Folder | ||
4/8 | Financial statements and
budgets |
1944-1947, 1950-1953 |
4/9 | Grant-in-aid to University of
Montana from Rockefeller Foundation |
1944-1952 |
4/10 | Travel authorizations
|
1945-1947 |
Local Study Group Materials
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
5/1 | Arlee Full Blood Flathead
Indian Study Group (includes minutes, historical articles, stories)
|
1947 |
5/2 | Conrad Study Group (includes
minutes, reports, letter) |
1945-1946 |
5/3-4 | Darby Study Group (includes
minutes, report, "Darby Looks at Itself" drama) |
1945 |
5/5 | Dixon-Agency Study Group
(includes minutes, historical articles, general information on Flathead
Reservation, resolution) |
1946-1947 |
5/6 | Dixon-Agency and Arlee Study
Groups (includes "A Tale of the Shining Mountains" drama) |
1947 |
5/7 | Hamilton Study Group (includes
minutes, reports) |
1945 |
5/8-9 | Lewistown Study Group
(includes minutes, historical articles, "Echoes from the Mountains" drama by
Tom Moore) |
1945-1947 |
5/10-11 | Libby Study Group (includes
minutes, historical articles, report on forest products industry, annual wild
life report, Greater Libby Association materials) |
1947-1957 |
5/12-13 | Lonepine Study Group (includes
minutes, historical articles, reports, "Lonepine Historical Drama")
|
1945-1947 |
5/14-15 | Stevensville Study Group
(includes land utilization report, "A Tale of the Bitter Root" drama)
|
1946 |
5/16 | Troy Development Association
(includes minutes) |
undated |
5/17 | Victor Study Group (includes
historical notes) |
1945-1946 |
5/18 | Woodman Study Group (includes
minutes, historical articles, poems) |
1946 |
Minutes |
||
Box/Folder | ||
6/1 | Montana Committee Organizing
Conference |
February 1945 |
6/2 | Montana Study Group
|
undated |
6/3 | Montana Study Liaison
Committee |
1947 |
Organizational Records
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
6/4 | Organizational chart and
program objectives |
undated |
Reports |
||
Box/Folder | ||
6/5-6 | "Life in Montana" Series I-II
study guides |
1945 and undated |
6/7 | "Life in Western Montana"
(reports of meetings in Hamilton, Darby, and Lonepine) |
1945 |
6/8 | "Memorandum to the Rockefeller
Foundation" (report for grant application) |
circa 1943 |
6/9 | "Montana State College and the
Northern Great Plains Region" (and related reports) |
1943 |
6/10 | "A Plan of the U.S.D.A.
Council, Ravalli County, Montana for carrying out the provisions of Memorandum
No. 1132, of the Secretary of Agriculture" |
1948 |
6/11-13 | Progress reports |
1944-1947 |
6/14 | "A Proposal for Continuance of
the Montana Study" by George A. Selke, chancellor University of Montana (also
includes related, undated, unattributed proposal) |
1949 and undated |
6/15 | "Report of the Second Annual
University Institute for Social Welfare" |
1948 |
6/16 | "R[ockefeller] F[oundation]
Appropriation to Montana State University for Regional Studies, 1944-1947"
|
1949 |
6/17 | "A State Takes Stock of
Itself" (excerpt from Trustees Bulletin) |
1946 |
6/18 | "University of Montana
Descriptive Statement of Project for which Financial Aid Is Requested from the
Rockefeller Foundation" |
1948 |
Speeches and Writings
|
||
Box/Folder | ||
6/19 | O.E. Baker, "The Conservation
of the Family" |
1945 |
6/20 | O.E. Baker, "The Family, the
Church, and the State (Government)" |
1945 |
6/21 | O.E. Baker, "Population
Trends, National, State, Local" |
1945 |
6/22 | O.E. Baker and Arthur E.
Morgan list of lectures |
1945 |
6/23 | A.B. Bowman, "Summary and
Brief Description of the Forest Management Plan for the Kootenai Sustained
Yield Unit" |
1947 |
6/24 | Iver M. Brandjord, "An
Interstate Currency Resembling Federal Reserve Currency for the United States
of Western Europe" |
1948 |
6/25 | Baker Brownell, "The
College--a Report on a Failure" |
1945 |
6/26 | Baker Brownell, "The College
and the Community" |
1946 |
6/27 | Baker Brownell, "The Community
Drama in Adult Education" |
1946 |
6/28 | Baker Brownell, "Community
Drama in Montana" |
undated |
6/29 | Baker Brownell, "The Human
Community" [excerpts] |
1950 |
6/30 | Baker Brownell, "Lonepine,
Montana" [handwritten draft] |
undated |
6/31 | Baker Brownell, "Montana Plan
[drafts and outlines] |
1944 |
6/32 | Baker Brownell, "The Montana
Project" |
1946 |
6/33 | Baker Brownell, "The Montana
Study" |
1944 |
6/34 | Baker Brownell, "The Montana
Study Groups" |
1946 |
6/35 | Baker Brownell, "Organization
and Procedures of Montana Study" |
1948 |
6/36 | Baker Brownell, "A Project in
Educational Reorganization" |
1945 |
6/37 | Baker Brownell, "Social
Implications of Forestry in the Inland Empire" |
1946 |
6/38 | Baker Brownell, "Tentative
Outline of Montana Project in the Humanities" |
1944 |
6/39 | Baker Brownell, "Three
Corrupting Principles of College Life" |
1946 |
6/40 | Baker Brownell, "The Value of
the Humanities" |
1945 |
6/41 | Karl Detzler, "The Whole Town
Goes to School" (re Nadeau, Pennsylvania) |
circa 1948 |
6/42 | Bert Hansen, "Community
Unification through Dramaturgy" |
undated |
6/43 | Bert Hansen, "Darby, Montana,
Looks at Itself" |
1946 |
6/44 | Bert Hansen, "An Evaluation of
the Montana Study" |
circa 1947 |
6/45 | Bert Hansen, "Preliminary
Notes on the San Francisco Speech" |
1946 |
6/46 | Bert Hansen, "Sociodrama in a
Small-Community Therapy Program" |
1947 |
6/47 | Bert Hansen, "Sociodrama in a
Speech Communication Program" |
1947 |
6/48 | Bert Hansen, "A Tale of the
Bitter Root: Pageantry as Sociodrama" |
1947 |
6/49 | Joseph Kinsey Howard,
"Community is Stressed in Indian Education" |
1945 |
6/50 | Joseph Kinsey Howard, "New
Concepts of Plains History" |
1946 |
6/51 | Joseph Kinsey Howard, "On
Montana Education: an Address" |
1945 |
6/52 | Joseph Kinsey Howard,
"University Fund Allocation" |
1949 |
6/53 | Harold F. Kaufman and Lois C.
Kaufman, "Toward the Stabilization and Enrichment of a Forest Community" (re
Troy and Libby) |
1946 |
7/1 | Edward A. Krug, "The Public
School and Community Improvement: Report on Preliminary Inquiry Carried Out by
School of Education as One Aspect of the Montana Study" |
undated |
7/2 | Ernest Lauer, "The Emotional
and Ideological Forces Active in the State of Montana" |
1944 |
7/3 | Paul Meadows, "The People of
Montana: a Report to the Montana Study" |
1945 |
7/4 | Paul Meadows, "Regional
Characteristics of Montana: a Report to the Montana Study" |
undated |
7/5 | H.G. Merriam, "Preliminary
Report to President J.A. McCain on Establishing Work Leading to the PhD in the
Humanities" |
1948 |
7/6 | Walter H. Meyer, "Comments on
'Toward the Stabilization and Enrichment of a Forest Community' by Harold and
Lois Kaufman" (re Troy and Libby) |
circa 1946 |
7/7 | Ruth W. Robinson,
"Community-Centered Education for Montana Adults" |
1947 |
7/8 | Ruth W. Robinson, "Community
Study, Community Planning: the Story of the Conrad Montana Study Group"
|
undated |
7/9 | Ruth W. Robinson, "How We Live
in Montana" [school study guide] |
1945 |
7/10 | Ruth W. Robinson, "Montana
Handicrafts: a 1947 Directory of Montana Craftsmen" |
1947 |
7/11 | George A. Selke, "Organization
and Procedures of Montana Study" |
1948 |
7/12 | "Comments on The Montana
Study" [by wide variety of people] |
1944-1946 |
Subject Files |
||
Box/Folder | ||
7/13 | Great Plains Studies (proposed
Rockefeller Foundation grant by George Smith) |
1942 |
7/14 | Handweaving in Guatamala
(Rockefeller Foundation Grant for Harriet Douglas and Mary Atwater of Montana
State University) |
1946-1950 |
7/15 | Montana Project: Fairway Farms
Company (Rockefeller Foundation grant for study of scientific farming)
|
1923-1924 |
7/16-20 | Northern Plains Studies
(Rockefeller Foundation grant to joint United States and Canada project)
|
1942-1950 |
7/21-22 | Northwestern University
regional studies program (Rockefeller Foundation grant to Baker Brownell)
|
1946-1952 |
7/23 | Regional Studies (Rockefeller
Foundation grant to Montana State University) |
1943 |
Miscellany |
||
Box/Folder | ||
7/24 | Bibliography from Small Town
Renaissance |
undated |
7/25 | Book announcements for Montana
Margins: a State Anthology; and Small Town Renaissance |
undated |
7/26 | "Joseph Kinsey Howard,
1906-1951 In Memoriam" |
1951 |
7/27 | Montana Institute of the Arts
constitution and quarterly bulletin |
1948 |
7/28 | Montana Study Groups
Association bulletin |
1946 |
7/29 | Proposed short courses for
community leaders |
undated |
7/30 | University Executive Council
minutes excerpts |
1945-1946 |
Clippings |
||
Box/Folder | ||
7/31-32 | The Montana Study and related
topics |
1944-1950 |
Secondary Works Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Writings |
||
Box/Folder | ||
8/1 | John L. Schwechton and Ray
Gold,
Life in Montana, as seen in Wibaux, a
Small Community, 4th revision |
1976 |
8/2 | Carla Homstad,
Small Town Eden: the Montana
Study (University of Montana M.A. Thesis) |
1987 |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Community education--Montana
- Humanities--Study and teaching--Montana
- Sociology, Rural--Montana
Corporate Names
- Rockefeller Foundation
- University of Montana (System)
Family Names
- Brownell, Baker, 1887-1965--Correspondence
- Hansen, Bert B.--Correspondence
- Howard, Joseph Kinsey, 1906-1951--Correspondence
- Robinson, Ruth W.--Correspondence
Geographical Names
- Arlee (Mont.)
- Conrad (Mont.)
- Darby (Mont.)
- Dixon (Mont.)
- Hamilton (Ravalli County, Mont.)
- Lewistown (Mont.)
- Libby (Mont.)
- Lonepine (Mont.)
- Montana--Rural conditions--20th century
- Montana--Social conditions--20th century.
- Stevensville (Mont.)
- Troy (Mont.)
- Victor (Mont.)
- Woodman (Mont.)