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.
ElizabethReitellSmith Papers - Mss 623
Born and educated in New York, ElizabethReitellSmith became inspired by the west in 1962 on a Montana Wilderness Society sponsored trip through what is now Montana’s BobMarshallWilderness.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 EldonSmith.
Map of Proposed Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness, Montana Wilderness Association, 1972. Elizabeth Reitell Smith Papers
From 1967-1980, ElizabethSmith was director of the Montana Wilderness Association and she and her husband traveled the Western states advocating for wilderness and the environment.
The ElizabethReitellSmith 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 MissoulaValley.
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.
This colored lithograph gives an idea of what Missoula looked like in the 1850s. The image appears in volume 12 of Reports of Explorations and Surveys, which documented an expedition to determine the route for what would eventually become the Northern Pacific Railway. The expedition was led by Isaac Stevens, governor of the Washington Territory, of which present-day Montana was then a part. You can find more pictures of early Missoula in our collection of online photos.
