ML Archives and Special Collections

In March 2009, National Women’s History Month is celebrating “Women Taking the Lead to Save our Planet”.  This post highlights two collections from the Mansfield Library’s Archives & Special Collections department that fit this theme.

 Elizabeth Reitell Smith Papers - Mss 623

 Born and educated in New York, Elizabeth Reitell Smith became inspired by the west in 1962 on a Montana Wilderness Society sponsored trip through what is now Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness.  That same year, Smith moved to Montana to become publications director for The University of Montana’s School of Forestry in Missoula.  It was in Montana that she met her fourth husband, environmentalist and wildlife biologist Eldon Smith. 

   Map of Proposed Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Montana Wilderness Association, 1972.  Elizabeth Reitell Smith Papers

From 1967-1980, Elizabeth Smith was director of the Montana Wilderness Association and she and her husband traveled the Western states advocating for wilderness and the environment. 

The Elizabeth Reitell Smith papers contain materials relevant to Smith’s work as a Montana wilderness and environmental activist. The materials include research, newsletters, drafts of speeches, position papers and correspondence dating from 1965 to 1980.  Smith remained actively involved in local and regional environmental issues until her death in 2001.

 GASP (Gals Against Smog and Pollution) Records - Mss 043

GASP was formed in the spring of 1968 by a group of Missoula women fighting against air pollution in the Missoula area. The group was active until 1970 and helped bring the provisions of the 1967 Clean Air Act to the Missoula Valley. 

GASP Newsletter. GASP Records

 The collection details the organization and history of GASP and documents air and water pollution conditions in Montana and in the United States. Included are correspondence, other GASP records, and an extensive collection of publications and clippings about GASP and pollution in general.

 Photo 98-1654, Intermountain Lumber Company, Missoula, Montana, 1968

Photo 98-1653, Teepee Burner, Missoula, Montana, undated

Apologies for the delay in posting, but we’ve all been busy with remodeling. Here’s a quick image from an interesting bookplate (click to view larger version):

Bookplate imagery is often associated with the identity of the owner (coats of arms, for instance, or something related to the owner’s last name or history), but sometimes the images are just pictures someone found interesting, or perhaps the connections to an individual or family just aren’t easy to puzzle out to those not in on the secret. The bookplate above is an example of the latter. What is the unusual big cat (a leopard?) holding? Is it catching a comet? Deflating a beach ball?

For anyone interested in bookplates, the blog Confessions of a Bookplate Junkie offers a steady stream of interesting bookplates and commentary.

Daniel Bandmann, An Actor’s Tour; or, Seventy Thousand Miles with Shakespeare. Boston: Cupples, Upham and Co., 1885. (SpColl-MT Coll: 910.4 B214a)

The 1905 New York Times obituary for Daniel Bandmann describes him as “a Shakespearean actor of note and one of the best-known residents of Montana”. In this 1885 work, Bandmann relates a tour around the world on which he performed Shakespeare’s plays in locations like New Zealand and India. After moving to the Missoula area Bandmann continued acting, putting on numerous local productions, as well becoming the owner of two ranches. Among other things, Bandmann is cited as the person who first introduced McIntosh apples to the state¹.

But An Actor’s Tour is also an example of one reason that digitized books usually aren’t a substitute for the physical object. Our copy includes a two-leaf program inserted between the endpapers and the frontispiece:

The program describes the performances of “Herr and Mrs. Bandmann” (Bandmann’s wife acted as well) at the Princess’s Theatre in London. In addition to being visually interesting and offering information about performances in which Bandmann took part, the program includes advertisements for such products as “Rimmel’s Aquadentine”, a tooth-whitener, and “Rimmel’s Fancy Crackers” (Eugene Rimmel, “Perfumer by Appointment to H.R.H. the Princess of Wales”, and an interesting figure himself, sponsored the program). A copy of the book is available online through Google Books, but it doesn’t contain the program where it appears in our copy.

Andrew Gardenier, The Successful Stockman and Manual of Husbandry. Springfield, Mass.: The King Richardson Co., 1899. (SpColl: 636 G2187)

Here are some images from a manikin (OED, see definition c, although perhaps the preferable term would be ‘cowikin’ or ‘bovikin’) inserted into a nineteenth-century husbandry manual:

Note that the final illustration above (Digestive Apparatus) includes separate fold-out pieces to better illustrate the bovine digestive system.

We’ve begun transferring materials in preparation for our Summer renovation, and in the process we’re coming across some interesting things that we haven’t seen in a while.

(Linderman Memorial Collection,  MSS 7, Series IX, item L027)

This handmade saddle (pardon the quick overhead snapshot) was crafted from wood and leather with iron rings and deerskin stirrups. It’s a woman’s saddle, mostly likely Cree from the turn of the century, and it’s part of the Archives’ Frank Bird Linderman collection.

No doubt we’ll be able to highlight many more interesting items during the process.