Ida Louise Anderson was born in Morganton, Tennessee, on 6 November 1900. At three years of age she and her parents moved to Colfax, Washington. Five years later, she returned to Tennessee with her family for a visit. While there, she became gravely ill. Doctors diagnosed her condition as infantile paralysis or polio. During the next several years, Anderson underwent medical and physical therapy in attempt to lessen the disease's effects. Despite treatment, Anderson experienced health changes due to polio, including a severe curvature of the spine. In 1924, Anderson received an undergraduate degree in speech from the State College of Washington. She spent a summer in Alaska before returning to Pullman to begin a sixteen-year teaching career at WSC in the school's Department of Speech. Anderson took advanced speech work at the Boston School of Expression and at the University of California during two summers. She also studied a year at Northwestern University. Her teaching career ended in 1939, when the lingering effects of polio forced her to retire. Shortly, Anderson moved to Oregon to be nearer her sister. She died there on 16 September 1941. Anderson was buried in Colfax, Washington.
Ida Lou Anderson was one of the State College's most respected instructors with a powerful mind and character that reached well beyond the classroom. She pioneered the field of radio broadcasting. One of Anderson's earliest and most impressive students was Edward R. Murrow, a European news correspondent during World War II and a journalist and executive for the news division of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) through the early 1960s.
The Ida Louise Anderson Papers are comprised of several types of items. Correspondence includes letters between Anderson and WSC president Ernest O. Holland and WSC vice-president Herbert Kimbrough concerning her resignation and retirement, and letters concerning plans for a memorial publication commemorating Anderson's life. Other material includes scrapbooks and large-size single leaves on which Anderson typed favorite passages from literary works. Also included are handwritten lists of books that Anderson had read during the 1920s, along with favorite quotations from several of them. Finally, the collection includes several copies of Ida Lou Anderson: A Memorial, a small volume published by the State College of Washington c.1942. It includes tributes to Anderson from WSC president E. O. Holland, Edward R. Murrow, Maynard Daggy, and other friends and relatives.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item description]
Ida Louise Anderson Papers, 1921-1970 (Cage 52)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The Washington State University Libraries acquired the Ida Louise Anderson Papers in piecemeal fashion from the 1940s through 1970.
In March 1994, the papers were reprocessed.
In 2022, Gayle O'Hara revised the collection description to bring it into compliance with current professional standards.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.