MSS 113
McBirney, Ruth, 1918-1991.
- Papers, 1897-1991
- ca. 10 ft. (in 21 boxes)
- Librarian, of Boise, Idaho.
- Finding aid online
- An online exhibit explores her life in France, 1947-1953
Chiefly correspondence back and forth between McBirney and her parents in Boise, Idaho, while she was away from home at Whitman College and the University of Washington (1936-1940), working in New York at the Columbia University Music Library (1942-1946), and serving abroad as librarian at the American Library in Paris (1947-1953), before she returned to Boise, where she became head librarian at Boise State University (then Boise Junior College); together with personal appointment books, scrapbooks, personal and travel memorabilia, family papers, genealogies, and photos. McBirney's letters home present an almost day-by-day account of personal, social, and cultural life at college and in New York and Paris, as well as descriptions of political and social conditions in France in the immediate post-World War II period. Letters from McBirney's parents record family and social life in Boise and civilian activities on the wartime homefront. There is a small file documenting McBirney's financial backing of Marcel Marceau (1949) and two early handbills of his pantomime programs with Pierre Sonnier. Other correspondents include Ian Forbes Fraser.
Gift, 1991.