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Charles Kuhlman Research Collection : Battle of the Little Big Horn, 1876-1959

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Kuhlman, Charles, 1872-1959
Title
Charles Kuhlman Research Collection : Battle of the Little Big Horn
Dates
1876-1959 (inclusive)
Quantity
1.5 linear feet of shelf space
Collection Number
MC 81 (collection)
Summary
Charles Kuhlman (1873-1959) was a sugar beet farmer and amateur historian from Billings, Montana. Papers consist of general correspondence (1936-1959) concerning his research into the Battle of the Little Big Horn (1876) and George Armstrong Custer; drafts of his writings; miscellany; and clippings. Many of the letters also reflect his farming business and his interest in foreign policy.
Repository
Montana Historical Society, Library & Archives
Montana Historical Society Research Center Archives
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT
59620-1201
Telephone: 4064442681
Fax: 4064445297
mhslibrary@mt.gov
Access Restrictions

Collection open for research.

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Biographical Note

Charles Kuhlman was born on a farm near Davenport, Iowa, on January 15, 1873. When he was five, his family moved to a farm near Grand Island, Nebraska. Kuhlman attended school in Grand Island when he was free from farm work, about three months of the year. He graduated from high school in 1892. To earn money for college, he taught for a year in a rural school and also raised sugar beets for a local sugar factory. He attended the University of Nebraska on a fellowship, receiving his B.A. in 1897 and his M.A. in 1900. Kuhlman's Leipzig-trained professor in the Department of European History convinced him to go to Europe for further study. In Paris he began research on the Breton Club, a precursor of the Jacobin Club of French Revolutionary fame. His thesis was accepted for a Ph.D. by the university at Zurich, Switzerland. On his return from Europe, Kuhlman accepted a position as instructor for the University of Nebraska history department. Unfortunately, his hearing--which had been poor ever since an attack of measles and mumps--began to deteriorate rapidly and he was forced to give up teaching. In 1903, after leaving the university, Kuhlman married Minnie Wilkinson. They moved to Loveland, Colorado, where Kuhlman engaged in sugar beet farming. Unsuccessful in this venture, they moved to Joliet, Montana, but had no better luck with beets there. He next tried truck farming in Billings, which proved profitable until the late 1920s when the bottom dropped out of the farm market. Kuhlman's mortgaged farm was foreclosed. In 1930, his wife Minnie died. Kuhlman went into a deep mental and physical decline. In August 1935, Kuhlman's children convinced him to accompany them on a visit to the Custer Battlefield. While there, Kuhlman discovered a new interest in life. He was especially fascinated with the burial markers and how poorly their locations fit with accepted accounts of the battle. For the next sixteen years, Kuhlman devoted his European academic training to a close analytical study of the terrain to produce a new interpretation of the Custer defeat. In 1940, he wrote a short book on the battle, General George A. Custer: A Lost Trail and the Gall Saga (popularly known as "Custer and the Gall Saga"). His major work, Legend into History: the Custer Mystery, was published by the Stackpole Company in 1951. It quickly became accepted as the most authoritative treatment to date. During the last years of his life, Kuhlman continued to research the Custer battle, producing several booklets and articles. During the 1940s and 1950s, Charles Kuhlman again devoted himself to truck farming, though never again on the scale of the 1920s. Also for a period in the 1940s, he was head gardener for the agricultural education program of the Billings Polytechnic Institute. His writing and research time was thus dictated by the planting and harvesting seasons. Charles Kuhlman died of cancer September 18, 1959, at the age of 86.

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Content Description

This collection consists primarily of Kuhlman's manuscript drafts and of general correspondence with his publishers and with other historians about his research on Custer and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The letters reflect the painstaking effort which Kuhlman put into his research and into publishing his work. However, the letters also reflect two other aspects of Kuhlman's life: his farming and his interest in politics, especially foreign policy.

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Use of the Collection

Alternative Forms Available

Some of letters on MF 334b

Restrictions on Use

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collection. In some cases permission for use may require additional authorization from the copyright owners. For more information contact an archivist.

Preferred Citation

Item description and date. Collection Title. Collection Number. Box and Folder numbers. Montana Historical Society Research Center, Archives, Helena, Montana.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arrangement by series. Correspondence series arranged alphabetically by last name.

Location of Collection

5:3-7

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request

Separated Materials

Maps transferred to Library. See inventory below for more information.

Related Materials

The donor also donated extensive portions of Kuhlman's papers to Brigham Young University. Many of our files interlock with files at Brigham Young. Researchers should be aware therefore that for a complete set of Kuhlman's correspondence with any given researcher both sets of papers must be checked. Click here for more information: Charles Kuhlman collection on the Battle of the Little Big Horn

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Detailed Description of the Collection

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection

  • Biographical Material

    • Description: Charles Kuhlman
      Dates: 1951, 1959
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 1
      Location: Biographical Material

  • General Correspondence

    • Description: Frank L. Anders
      Dates: 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 2
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: T. M. Anderson
      Dates: 1954-1958
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 3
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Armor, the Magazine of Mobile Warfare
      Dates: 1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 4
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: A
      Dates: 1954
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 5
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Joseph Balmer
      Dates: 1952-1957
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 6
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Charles A. Barrett
      Dates: 1955-1956
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 7
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Billings Gazette
      Dates: 1938-1950
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 8
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Robert Blumling
      Dates: 1950-1953
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 9
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Earl A. Brisinstool
      Dates: 1936-1954
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 10
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Robert Bruce
      Dates: 1949-1950
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 11
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Miss Bullock
      Dates: 1952, 1956
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 12
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Merrill G. Burlingame
      Dates: 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 13
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Raymond A. Burnside
      Dates: 1950-1955
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 14
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: B (correspondents include Bismarck Tribune)
      Dates: 1936-1959
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 15
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Grace Stone Coates
      Dates: 1936-1954
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 16
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: C-E
      Dates: 1938-1953
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 17
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: R. S. Ellison
      Dates: 1938-1940
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 18
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: W. A. Falconer
      Dates: 1939-1940
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 19
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Charles R. Foley
      Dates: 1939
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 20
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Earle R. Forrest
      Dates: 1940, 1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 21
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: F (correspondents include Maurice Frink, Sr.)
      Dates: 1940-1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 22
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: W. A. Graham
      Dates: 1948-1953, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 23
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: G
      Dates: 1942-1953
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 24
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: J. C. Hixon
      Dates: 1949-1951
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 25
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Phil Holman
      Dates: 1956-1957
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 26
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: James S. Hutchins
      Dates: 1951-1958
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 27
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: H-J
      Dates: 1938-1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 28
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Merrill A. Kitchen
      Dates: 1942-1951
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 29
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: K (correspondents include Emil Kopae)
      Dates: 1940-1956
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 30
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: James E. LeRossignol
      Dates: 1941
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 31
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Edward S. Luce
      Dates: 1939-1955
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 32-33
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: M. I. McCreight
      Dates: 1937-1949
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 34
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Military Service Publishing Company
      Dates: 1941-1942
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 35
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Andrew Mills
      Dates: 1951-1955
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 36
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: M (correspondents include Oscar O. Mueller, Mrs. Merle Mullican)
      Dates: 1940-1959
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 37
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Melvin J. Nichols
      Dates: 1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 38
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Elwood L. Nye
      Dates: 1947-1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 39
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: George Osten
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 1
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: W. H. Oury
      Dates: 1936
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 2
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: George W. Paxson
      Dates: 1952-1954
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 3
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Jerome Peltier
      Dates: 1952-1955
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 4
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: P (correspondents include Parmly Billings Memorial Library, C. M. Pedigo)
      Dates: 1950-1959
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 5
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Edith Kuhlman Rachmanow
      Dates: 1956
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 6
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Kenneth H. Rea
      Dates: 1953-1958
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 7
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Frierson H. Rice
      Dates: 1940-1950
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 8
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Harold Rixon
      Dates: 1951-1955
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 9
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Mrs. Ralph Rose
      Dates: 1958
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 10
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Francis Vinton Ruckman
      Dates: 1952
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 11
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Don Russell
      Dates: 1953-1957
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 12
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Earl Scudday
      Dates: 1954-1960
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 13
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: The Stackpole Company (includes predecessor, Military Services Publishing Company)
      Dates: 1951-1958
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 14-18
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: R. Steele
      Dates: 1943, 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 19
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Marian W. Stover
      Dates: 1953-1960
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 20
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: S-T (correspondents include John K. Standish, Bill Talmadge, Mrs. Charles D. Thompson)
      Dates: 1940-1958
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 21
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: U.S. Government Agencies (include Interior Department; Library of Congress; U.S. National Archives)
      Dates: 1938-1948
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 22
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Robert Utley
      Dates: 1951-1955
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 23
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Glendolin Damon Wagner
      Dates: 1933-1952
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 24
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: W (correspondents include C.C. Warner)
      Dates: 1942-1953
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 25
      Location: General Correspondence
    • Description: Unidentified
      Dates: 1941-1958
      Container: Box/Folder 2 / 26
      Location: General Correspondence

  • Financial Records

    • Description: Royalty Statements
      Dates: 1952-1959
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 1
      Location: Financial Records
    • Description: Miscellaneous
      Dates: 1940, 1952
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 2
      Location: Financial Records

  • Maps

    • Description: List of maps transferred to the Library
      Dates:
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 3
      Location: Maps

  • Writings

    • Description: Legend into History, foreward (draft)
      Dates: circa 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 4
      Location: Writings
    • Description: Legend into History, "Reconnaissance in Force" (drafts)
      Dates: circa 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 5
      Location: Writings
    • Description: Legend into History, "Captain Benteen's Scout" (drafts)
      Dates: circa 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 6
      Location: Writings
    • Description: Legend into History, "The Weir Point Episode" (drafts)
      Dates: circa 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 7
      Location: Writings
    • Description: Legend into History, "The Action on Custer Field" (drafts)
      Dates: circa 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 8
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Analysis of General Terry's Letter of Guidance to Custer" (drafts)
      Dates: circa 1957
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 9
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Foreward: "An Analytical Study of the Article by Colonel Robert P. Hughes..." (drafts)
      Dates: circa 1957
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 10
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "A Guide for the Custer Battlefield" (draft); "Custer Battlefield National Cemetery Montana" (with annotated map)
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 11
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Did Custer Disobey Gen. Terry's Instructions?"
      Dates: circa 1957
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 12
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Did a Man in Private Life Known as Frank Finkel Escape from the Custer Battle?" (in German)
      Dates: circa 1953
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 13
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "A New View of the 'Last Stand'"
      Dates: 1957
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 14
      Location: Writings
    • Description: Research notes and fragmentary writings
      Dates: circa 1955, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 3 / 15-16
      Location: Writings

  • Miscellany

    • Description: Book collectors' catalogs and file cards
      Dates: 1957, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 1
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Book reviews and promotional material
      Dates: 1951-1952
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 2
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: "Organization and Strength Table of General Custer's 7th U.S. Cavalry, June 25, 1876"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 3
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Rosebud mileage
      Dates: 1953
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 4
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Teaching certificate of Minnie Wilkinson
      Dates: 1894-1896
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 5
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: "The Washita," by Francis M. Gibson
      Dates: 1907
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 6
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: "The Brand Book"
      Dates: 1947-1948
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 7
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Miscellaneous
      Dates:
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 8
      Location: Miscellany

  • Clippings

    • Description: Books, speeches, etc. on Custer battle
      Dates: 1939-1957
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 9
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Crazy Horse
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 10
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: George Armstrong Custer
      Dates: 1938-1954
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 11
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Custer Battlefield
      Dates: 1951-1959
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 12
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Kuhlman's books and speeches
      Dates: 1946-1957
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 13
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Miscellaneous
      Dates: 1938-1952
      Container: Box/Folder 4 / 14
      Location: Clippings

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Cheyenne Indians--Wars, 1876
  • Cold War
  • Dakota Indians--Wars, 1876-1877
  • History--Research
  • Little Big Horn, Battle of the, 1876

Personal Names

  • Kuhlman, Charles, 1872-1959 (creator)

Finding aid prepared by MHS staff
2004

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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