Archives West Finding Aid
Table of Contents
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)18831959
- Quantity
- .75 linear feet of shelf space
- Collection Number
- MC 220
- 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 - Languages
- English
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Biographical NoteReturn to Top
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 recieved 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.
Content DescriptionReturn to Top
Papers. 1883-1959. .75 linear foot. This collection consists of papers of Joseph Kinsey Howard, including incoming correspondence (1908-1951); outgoing correspondence (1917-1951, n.d.); miscellaneous correspondence (1895-1959, n.d.), consisting of letters neither to nor from Howard; printed materials (1945-1950) consisting of some of Howard's published articles; writings (1913-1949, n.d.); speeches (1945, 1949); miscellany (1883-1957); and clippings.
Administrative InformationReturn to Top
Detailed Description of the CollectionReturn to Top
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection
Incoming Correspondence Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 1 | Miscellaneous |
1908,1951 |
Outgoing Correspondence Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 2 | Miscellaneous
(correspondents include Time, Inc.; R.H. Glover, chief counsel, Anaconda Copper
Mining Company; Josephine Howard; Jean ("Doody") McReynolds; etc.) |
1917-1951, n.d. |
Miscellaneous Correspondence Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 3 | 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) |
1895-1959, n.d. |
Photographs Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 4 | List of photographs
transferred to the Photo Archives |
Printed Material Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 5 | 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) |
1944-1950 |
Speeches Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 6 | "On Montana
Education" (Nov. 14, 1945); "University Fund Allocation" (July 29, 1949)
|
1945, 1949 |
Writings Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 7 | "Another Red"
|
n.d. |
1 / 8 | "The Bankable
Dust" |
n.d. |
1 / 9 | "The Birds"
|
n.d. |
1 / 10 | "The Bootlegger's
Family Tree: A Tatler Paper" (history of bootlegging) |
n.d. |
1 / 11 | "Cabin Kid"
|
n.d. |
1 / 12 | "Call It
Consecration" (precis of a novel) |
n.d. |
1 / 13 | "Carry Me Back to
Ol' Clarabelle" (review of the film "Virginia") |
n.d. |
1 / 14 | "Cecil B. De Mille
Gets His Man" (review of film "Northwest Mounted Police") |
1940 |
1 / 15 | "Cheap Crook"
|
n.d. |
1 / 16 | "Christian Burial"
|
n.d. |
1 / 17 | "The Farmer Tames
a Wildcat" (re Dave Schrock, Petroleum County) |
n.d. |
1 / 18 | "Happy Ending"
|
n.d. |
1 / 19 | Juvenile writings
("The Desert Island", "The Mound Builders"; "Luck!! Miscellaneous Readings";
"Pickwick Portfolio"; "Why I am in High School") |
1913-1917, 1919 |
1 / 20 | "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) |
n.d. |
1 / 21 | "A New Dress for
Anne" (two versions; includes letter from "E.R.M" re manuscript) |
1949, n.d. |
1 / 22 | "Pamela, Ph.D."
|
n.d. |
1 / 23 | "The Passing of
Tiger Puss" |
n.d. |
1 / 24 | "Remember the
Lilacs" |
n.d. |
1 / 25 | "A River Is a
Stream of Water" (re navigability of the Upper Missouri River) |
n.d. |
1 / 26 | "Second Degree"
|
n.d. |
1 / 27 | "Seeing Youth
Whole: A Plea for Sane Consideration" |
n.d. |
1 / 28 | "Spadework"
|
n.d. |
1 / 29 | "Thou Canst Not
See..." |
n.d. |
1 / 30 | "Tight Hole"
|
n.d. |
1 / 31 | "We Shout With the
Largest" |
n.d. |
1 / 32 | Untitled
|
n.d. |
Miscellany Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 33 | 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)
|
1883, 1903 |
1 / 34 | Josephine Howard
notes for talk on J.K. Howard |
1957 |
1 / 35 | Joseph Kinsey
Howard Christmas cards |
n.d. |
1 / 36 | Joseph Kinsey
Howard juvenile sketches, etc. |
1911, n.d. |
1 / 37 | Joseph Kinsey
Howard notes |
1941-1950, n.d. |
1 / 38 | Joseph Kinsey
Howard quotations notebooks |
1927-1929 |
1 / 39 | Joseph Kinsey
Howard notes from Writers' Conference in the Rocky Mountains |
1939 |
1 / 40 | J.W. Kinsey
family railroad passes, etc. |
1890-1913, n.d. |
1 / 41 | Kinsey
genealogical materials |
c.1880, 1902 |
1 / 42 | List of
artifacts transferred to Museum |
|
1 / 43 | Miscellaneous
|
n.d. |
1 / 44 | Norman A. Fox
tributes ("Joseph Kinsey Howard: a Writer"; "One Man's Way") |
1952 |
1 / 45 | Writers'
conferences brochures, etc. |
1949, 1951 |
Clippings Return to Top
Container(s) | Description | Dates |
---|---|---|
Box/Folder | ||
1 / 46 | Obituaries of
Joseph Kinsey Howard |
1951 |
1 / 47 | Reviews of
Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome |
1943-1947 |
1 / 48 | Reviews of
Montana Margins: A State Anthology |
1946-1947 |
1 / 49 | Reviews of
Strange Empire |
1952 |
1 / 50 | Miscellaneous
|
1946-1950, n.d. |
Names and SubjectsReturn to Top
Subject Terms
- Authors--Montana
- Literature--Montana
- Publishers and publishing--Montana