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Joseph Kinsey Howard papers, 1883-1959

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Howard, Joseph Kinsey, 1906-1951
Title
Joseph Kinsey Howard papers
Dates
1883-1959 (inclusive)
Quantity
0.75 linear feet
Collection Number
MC 220 (collection)
Summary
Joseph Kinsey Howard (1906-1951) was a Great Falls, Montana, author, newspaperman, and historian. Papers consist of incoming correspondence (1908-1951); printed materials (1945-1950), writings (1913-1949); speeches (1945, 1949); miscellany (1883-1957) and clippings.
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

Joseph Kinsey Howard was born in Oskaloosa, Iowa, on February 28, 1906, the son of John R. and Josephine "Howdy" Kinsey Howard. In 1911 John accepted a position as the mine manager for the Canada West Coal Mine in Taber, Alberta, and the family moved to Canada. Around 1917 John Howard deserted his wife and child, and Josephine moved to Lethbridge. In December 1918 Josephine and Joe moved to Great Falls, Montana. Joseph Kinsey Howard graduated from Great Falls High School in 1923, and immediately thereafter took a job with the Great Falls Leader. By the age of 20, Howard had become the news editor, a position he held until 1944, when he left the newspaper to become co-director of the Montana Study. The Montana Study was a three-year project sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation that sought to bring college education to people living in Montana's rural areas, to raise the state's "appreciative and spiritual" standard of living, and to stabilize community life. The Montana Study proved to be controversial and when the grant support was exhausted, it was not renewed. During the 1930s Howard produced many manuscripts for short stories and articles for magazines.

In 1943 he published his first book Montana: High, Wide and Handsome, which acquired immediate national critical acclaim. Using material gathered around the state while involved with the Montana Study, Howard published Montana Margins: A State Anthology in 1946. Howard provided the initial introduction and the introductory essays about each of the contributors and the work itself. In 1947 Howard received a Guggenheim Fellowship to gather research materials for a study of the 19th-century Metis rebellions in Canada. The result was published posthumously as Strange Empire in 1952. Jean MeReynolds, a friend of the Howards, who lived in San Francisco, California, was called "Doody" by Joseph. Joseph Kinsey Howard died of a heart attack on August 25, 1951, at his cabin near Choteau.

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Content Description

This collection consists of materials created, collected by, and related to Joseph Kinsey Howard, which include the following: incoming correspondence (1908-1951); outgoing correspondence (1917-1951, undated); miscellaneous correspondence (1895-1959, undated), consisting of letters neither to nor from Howard; printed materials (1945-1950) consisting of some of Howard's published articles; writings (1913-1949, undated); speeches (1945, 1949); miscellany (1883-1957); and clippings.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of the Montana Historical Society Library & Archives. The Library & Archives 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 Library & Archives, Helena, Montana.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

This collection is arranged into nine series: Incoming Correspondence (1908, 1951); Outgoing Correspondence (1917-1951, undated); Miscellaneous Correspondence (1895-1959, undated); Photographs (transferred to Photo Archives); Printed Material (1944-1950); Speeches (1945, 1949); Writings (1913-1949, undated); and Miscellany (1880-1957, undated).

Location of Collection

12:4-6

Acquisition Information

Acquisition information available upon request.

Separated Materials

Photographs and artifacts have been transferred to the Photograph Archives and Museum respectively. See inventory below for more information.

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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

  • Incoming Correspondence

  • Outgoing Correspondence

    • Description: Miscellaneous (correspondents include Time, Inc.; R.H. Glover, chief counsel, Anaconda Copper Mining Company; Josephine Howard; Jean ("Doody") McReynolds; etc.)
      Dates: 1917-1951, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 2
      Location: Outgoing Correspondence

  • Miscellaneous Correspondence

    • Description: Joseph Kinsey Howard (includes "Joe Howard of Montana", by Rebecca Osborn; A.B. Guthrie, Jr.s' draft introduction to Montana: High, Wide and Handsome; Minerva Kinsey; John R. Howard)
      Dates: 1895-1959, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 3
      Location: Miscellaneous Correspondence

  • Photographs

    • Description: List of photographs transferred to the Photo Archives
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 4
      Location: Photographs

  • Printed Material

    • Description: Published articles ("Sustained Yield Assures Timber Supply", Great Falls Tribune, April 16, 1950; "Stopping the Sawfly", The (Toronto) Star Weekly, April 17, 1948; "Montana's Historic Marriage Muddle", The Woman with Woman's Digest, July 1945; "Too Much Salt", Time, May 1950 (re Dr. Ferdinand Schemm, Great Falls); "The Montana Study", School and Society, Dec. 1944)
      Dates: 1944-1950
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 5
      Location: Printed Material

  • Speeches

    • Description: "On Montana Education" (Nov. 14, 1945); "University Fund Allocation" (July 29, 1949)
      Dates: 1945, 1949
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 6
      Location: Speeches

  • Writings

    • Description: "Another Red"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 7
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "The Bankable Dust"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 8
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "The Birds"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 9
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "The Bootlegger's Family Tree: A Tatler Paper" (history of bootlegging)
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 10
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Cabin Kid"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 11
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Call It Consecration" (precis of a novel)
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 12
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Carry Me Back to Ol' Clarabelle" (review of the film "Virginia")
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 13
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Cecil B. De Mille Gets His Man" (review of film "Northwest Mounted Police")
      Dates: 1940
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 14
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Cheap Crook"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 15
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Christian Burial"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 16
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "The Farmer Tames a Wildcat" (re Dave Schrock, Petroleum County)
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 17
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Happy Ending"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 18
      Location: Writings
    • Description: Juvenile writings ("The Desert Island", "The Mound Builders"; "Luck!! Miscellaneous Readings"; "Pickwick Portfolio"; "Why I am in High School")
      Dates: 1913-1917, 1919
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 19
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Loyalty Without Humiliation: the Story of a Forgotten Hero Who Fought His Way Across the Earth in Search of His Ideal" (re Thomas Francis Meagher)
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 20
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "A New Dress for Anne" (two versions; includes letter from "E.R.M" re manuscript)
      Dates: 1949, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 21
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Pamela, Ph.D."
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 22
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "The Passing of Tiger Puss"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 23
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Remember the Lilacs"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 24
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "A River Is a Stream of Water" (re navigability of the Upper Missouri River)
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 25
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Second Degree"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 26
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Seeing Youth Whole: A Plea for Sane Consideration"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 27
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Spadework"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 28
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Thou Canst Not See..."
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 29
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "Tight Hole"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 30
      Location: Writings
    • Description: "We Shout With the Largest"
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 31
      Location: Writings
    • Description: Untitled
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 32
      Location: Writings

  • Miscellany

    • Description: Howard and Kinsey family legal documents (divorce judgement of S.F. and J.E. Howard; marriage certificate of John Niggen Howard and Edna Josephine Kinsey)
      Dates: 1883, 1903
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 33
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Josephine Howard notes for talk on J.K. Howard
      Dates: 1957
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 34
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Joseph Kinsey Howard Christmas cards
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 35
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Joseph Kinsey Howard juvenile sketches, etc.
      Dates: 1911, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 36
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Joseph Kinsey Howard notes
      Dates: 1941-1950, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 37
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Joseph Kinsey Howard quotations notebooks
      Dates: 1927-1929
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 38
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Joseph Kinsey Howard notes from Writers' Conference in the Rocky Mountains
      Dates: 1939
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 39
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: J.W. Kinsey family railroad passes, etc.
      Dates: 1890-1913, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 40
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Kinsey genealogical materials
      Dates: circa 1880, 1902
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 41
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: List of artifacts transferred to Museum
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 42
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Miscellaneous
      Dates: undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 43
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Norman A. Fox tributes ("Joseph Kinsey Howard: a Writer"; "One Man's Way")
      Dates: 1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 44
      Location: Miscellany
    • Description: Writers' conferences brochures, etc.
      Dates: 1949, 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 45
      Location: Miscellany

  • Clippings

    • Description: Obituaries of Joseph Kinsey Howard
      Dates: 1951
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 46
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Reviews of Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome
      Dates: 1943-1947
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 47
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Reviews of Montana Margins: A State Anthology
      Dates: 1946-1947
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 48
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Reviews of Strange Empire
      Dates: 1952
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 49
      Location: Clippings
    • Description: Miscellaneous
      Dates: 1946-1950, undated
      Container: Box/Folder 1 / 50
      Location: Clippings

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Subject Terms

  • Authors--Montana
  • Literature--Montana
  • Publishers and publishing--Montana

Finding aid prepared by Bill Summers; Updated by Aaron Rau
2005; 2024

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

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