Lalia Phipps Boone Papers, 1950-1986

The papers in this record group were in no naturally discernable order when received; therefore a series order was imposed during processing. The papers were easily separated into two groups, those concerned with her interest in Idaho place names, and those concerned with her interest in the teaching of English.

The Idaho Place Names Project began in 1966 as a personal hobby. She wanted to know why Idaho place names sounded strange to her southern ears and wanted to know what the names meant; her aim was to compile an Idaho place names dictionary. The project received early funding from the National Science Foundation, and in 1968 became one of two pilot projects in the American Name Society nationwide Place Name Survey. She began editing her work for publication in 1983, publishing first a volume on Latah County place names in 1984, and the state volume the following year.

The place name series contains two articles on Idaho place names written by Dr. Boone, one on Indian place names, the other on the names of Idaho counties which was reprinted in the Congressional Record in 1970 at the request of Senator Frank Church. The main correspondence file contains letters to and from informants, these are arranged chronologically. The remaining letters which were arranged by place name organizations also contain newsletters.

Dr. Boone applied for several grants to enable her to financially support the project; copies of these grants are included in the collection.

Items dealing with the volume of Latah County place names were separated and are listed under the Latah County subheading.

The Research materials include articles on counties, areas, cities, National Forests, and creeks and rivers. Also included are a few manuscript notes, newspaper clippings, and brochures published by various cities. The maps have been separated by type and are arranged alphabetically.

The file cards containing the assembled data were originally in metal file drawers. The cards were removed and placed in archival boxes, two rows to a box; therefore, the folder numbers in boxes 4-8 actually refer to rows rather than folders. Many of the place names on these cards do not appear in the final edition of the Idaho Place Names book.

The final items in this series are books which she used in gathering information. Many of these books which are arranged alphabetically by main entry are marked up, and several have entries cut out. All of these books are also available in the Special Collections Library.

The second series contains correspondence of a general nature, including a 1974 letter from Alma Keeling in which she discusses the trials of writing and editing and publishing her book The Uncovered Wagon. The correspondence is in chronological order. Other materials are related to the teaching of English at the elementary and secondary level and include correspondence, publications, study guides, and typed copies of stories written by early elementary school children near Moscow; this may be part of the thesis research done by one of Dr. Boone's graduate students. There is one sheet of paper which compares Johnson's Dictionary to that of Nathaniel Bailey; this was the label for a box of index cards which was discarded. There is no evidence that Dr. Boone ever published an article on this topic. Tetsumaro Hayashi was a student of Dr. Boone's at the University of Florida. He continued to correspond with her and send her reprints of his articles and copies of a journal he edited on John Steinbeck. This material is contained in one folder. The University of Idaho folder contains memos and a bibliography of Publications on Idaho Folk Traditions.

Thesis, dissertations, and term papers directed by Dr. Boone are in alphabetical by author order near the end of this series. The final items include index cards and tape recordings pertaining to folklore, and index cards noting the dialect used in Marjorie Rawlings' books.

In addition to the index cards for the Johnson's Dictionary project, duplicate copies of computer print outs of the Idaho Place Names book were discarded as were the final index cards from which the book was compiled. In all the bulk was reduced by 1.5 cubic feet.