Joseph Harding Underwood Collection, 1888-1976

This series contains some of Joseph Underwood's diaries, school records, certificates, personal notes, and public records. Additionally, the series includes notes written by researchers who examined Underwood's manuscripts prior to the collection's donation to the K. Ross Toole Archives. Many of Underwood's diaries were transcribed at some point in the past. Those transcriptions are included in this series, along with the originals. Materials in this series provide insights into Underwood's life and ambitions, particularly from the years preceding his teaching career at the University of Montana.

This series contains Joseph Underwood's incoming correspondence and an extensive file of correspondence documenting efforts to preserve Underwood's manuscripts. Most of the correspondence in this series is focused upon Underwood's teaching career and developments at the University of Montana (particularly the dismissal of President Craighead). Correspondence regarding Underwood's manuscripts document multiple relocations and various efforts to secure public access to his work--both through posthumous publication and archival preservation.

This series contains an extensive collection of Joseph Underwood's writings. Materials are predominantly writing notes, rough drafts, and typescript copies; however, the series also contain a few published copies. Underwood's writing projects often mixed fiction and non-fiction, poetry and prose. Fiction materials in this series include extensive sequences of poetry (some loosely grouped and others within cohesive projects), numerous short stories, and mixed-medium novels. Topics of his non-fiction material include analyses of American and European history and proposals for promoting and reforming social justice, property ownership, tax regulations, and education policies. Additionally, the series contains several creative non-fiction projects such as Underwood's editorial reflections on religious topics, life as an academic, the relationship between individuality and social responsibility, the role of literature in personal development, perceived parallels between Montana landscapes and proper acculturation, and a biography of and tribute to his mother, Elizabeth Harding Underwood. The manuscript project titled Sin, one of two major projects Underwood was developing at the time of his death, appears to be a re-working of an earlier project titled The Canyon - Love.

This series contains newspaper and magazine clippings collected by Joseph Underwood as well as a small sequence of material regarding his death collected by another. Topics range across a spectrum of personal and professional interests, including University of Montana events.

This series contains printed materials collected by Joseph Underwood during his professional career. Materials in this series are primarily invitations to and programs for University of Montana events. Also included are some pamphlets regarding topics of personal interest to Underwood and a picture postcard capturing a well-dressed group gathered in a park.