Archives West Finding Aid

The Grace Davidson Baldwin collection contains four series, Ephemera, Photographs, Correspondence, and Plays, Essays and Poems. The Ephemera consists of odd newspaper clippings, professionally printed poems, a vocabulary building notebook, and one copy of the Flathead Bulletin, all arranged in rough chronological and alphabetical order. There are 90 photographs in the series, arranged into two chronological groups. The first (c1900-1963) are mainly photos of Baldwin camping in Montana and of Montana landscapes, though some old family photos from Illinois are included. The second group contains photographs (1958- 1974) of Baldwin taken in the 1950s and there are several photographs of unidentified people (possibly at a church gathering) as well as one of an old student, "Ferd". There are also a few snapshots of Baldwin's 1974 wedding to Hutchinson in New Zealand. The Correspondence is arranged alphabetically by name and chronologically thereunder. These letters, though few in number, offer tantalizing glimpses into Baldwin's life. For instance, the 1932 letters kept in Baldwin's possession between one L. Sterling Gray and a poetry book publisher strongly suggest that Baldwin may have written and published under this pseudonym. Her letter to "Frank" dated February 4, 1973 recounts a 1938 accident in which she suffered a gunshot wound to the shoulder. Her 1971 letter to an Idaho legislator suggests she was in the habit of writing to government officials and also politically active. The fourth series is arranged into the categories "plays, essays and poetry," thereunder it is arranged chronologically by date of manuscript. Of the three plays in the collection, two are definitely written by Baldwin for her Flathead school students to perform as class projects. The third play, " The Gates in the Mountains," is set in 1949. The author and date of this one act play are not specifically indicated. Baldwin kept many of her early college essays dating from c1920-1930. These manuscripts, complete with grade and teacher comments, are arranged chronologically. Baldwin began organizing her poems into theme categories sometime in the 1950s. During the 1960s she published these arrangements into a book called South Fork, The Hope (re: the South Fork River, Montana). The poems in this series are kept in their original order. Where no order or arrangement was obvious, they have been arranged chronologically by date of document.