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State Agency Records - Historical Society - #30205

Title: State Historical Society. Administration, Curator's Correspondence

Dates: 1905-1923

Record Series: 30205

Quantity: 4 feet

Abstract: Consists of correspondence, reports, research, and printed material of Jesse A. Tanner, Herbert C. Fish, Ernst R. Steinbrueck, and Melvin R. Gilmore and relates to administration of the museum, research, and agency acquisition activity of the State Historical Society..

Copyright: Public records are not subject to copyright restrictions, although record series may contain copyrighted material.  Consideration of such copyrights is the responsibility of the author and publisher.

Access: These records are available for public inspection under provision of the North Dakota Century Code, 55-02.1-08.

Citation: Researchers are requested to cite the record group, series name and number, and the State Historical Society of North Dakota in all footnote and bibliographic references.

Related Collections:
MMS 10046 Dana Wright
MMS 10085 Orin G. Libby
MMS 10149 Russell Reid
30203 State Historical Society. Superintendent’s Correspondence
32294 State Historical Society. Museum Division Curator Files, Norman Paulson

Biographical Sketch – Herbert C. Fish

Herbert Fish was born August 5, 1875 in Moline, Illinois to Lorenzo Erasmus and Lucy A. (Starr) Fish. He received his early education in Moline and earned his B. L. degree from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1903. In 1920 he received an M. A. degree from the University of Washington. He was trained in U.S. history, and economics and did archaeological work in Wisconsin.  He taught at Covington, Indiana and Marshfield, Wisconsin. In 1905 he spent six weeks doing field work in the northern part of North Dakota with State Historical Society Secretary O. G. Libby. He was hired as curator for the State Historical Society on 1907.

It was in the gathering and organizing of Indian artifacts and the recording of Indian songs, legends and speeches that Herbert C. Fish, first curator of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, excelled. Every summer from 1907 to 1915 he worked in the field with the Indians and pioneers collecting materials and information about their early history. He became very proficient in the use of Indian Sign Language and recorded numerous Indian stories and legends on the cylinder records of the times. At various times he was joined by other researchers including Dr. Libby, Frances Densmore, and Evan Hall, agriculture teacher at the Fort Berthold Reservation. James Holding Eagle and Sitting Crow were two of the Indians who worked with him frequently.

While living in Bismarck Mr. Fish took an active interest in community affairs, serving on the school board and active in church and lodge work. As an author his works include “A Brief History of North Dakota” and his master’s thesis, “The Early Development of the Northern Route of the Dakota Land to the Pacific”.

H. C. Fish was married to May O. Hall. He left the State Historical Society of North Dakota when he was appointed head of the Department of History at Minot Normal College where he served from 1915-1919. After a year of graduate work at the University of Washington he became head of the History Department at the State Normal School in Ellensburg, Washington. He died October 22, 1934 in East Wenatchee, Washington.

Sources:
Ancestry
Bismarck Daily Tribune, August 22, 1907, November 2, 1915
The Ellensburg Capital, Friday October 26, 1934

Biographical Sketch – Melvin R. Gilmore

Melvin R. Gilmore, son of John R. and Mary Louisa (Concannon) Gilmore, was born on March 11, 1868 in Valley, Nebraska. He received an AB from Cotner College in 1904; an MA in Botany from the University of Nebraska in 1909; and his Ph.D. in 1914, also from Nebraska. Gilmore was Professor of Biological Science at Cotner College from 1905-1911, and museum curator at the Nebraska State Historical Society from 1911-1916. From 1916-1923 he served curator at the Dakota State Historical Society of North Dakota. He next worked at the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York, as a member of the scientific staff. He became Curator of Ethnology, Museum of Anthropology, at the University of Michigan in 1929. Dr. Gilmore, an adopted member of the Pawnee Indian tribe and authority on Plains Indians, wrote extensively in scientific periodicals on the material culture of Indians in the Missouri valley, intertribal commerce, ancient customs and ceremonies, and folklore. Gilmore died in Lincoln, Nebraska on July 25, 1940 after a long illness.

Source:
Nebraska State Historical Society website

BOX / FOLDER INVENTORY

Box 1:
1 Jessie A. Tanner 1905-1907
2 Jessie A. Tanner - O. G. Libby 1906-1907
3 Jesse A. Tanner - Ernst R. Steinbrueck 1907
4 Research for article, “Foreign Immigration Into North Dakota,” by Jesse A. Tanner in Collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, vol. I (1906)
5 Herbert C. Fish 1907
6 Herbert C. Fish 1908
7 Herbert C. Fish 1909
8 Herbert C. Fish 1910
9 Herbert C. Fish 1911
10 Herbert C. Fish, January-May 1912
11 Herbert C. Fish, June-December 1912

Box 2:
1 Herbert C. Fish, January-June 1913
2 Herbert C. Fish, July-December 1913
3 Herbert C. Fish, January-June 1914
4 Herbert C. Fish, July-December 1914
5 Herbert C. Fish 1915
6 Herbert C. Fish n.d.
7 Herbert C. Fish - J. D. Allen 1907-1915
8 Herbert C. Fish - A. E. Alexander 1914
9 Herbert C. Fish - Charles W. Andrews 1907-1915
10 Herbert C. Fish - Alfred G. Arvold 1912-1914
11 Herbert C. Fish - Myron L. Ayers 1911-1914
12 Herbert C. Fish - Peter H. Beauchamp 1909-1914
13 Herbert C. Fish - Aaron McGaffey Beede 1910-1914
14 Herbert C. Fish - William G. Bek 1911-1913
15 Herbert C. Fish - C. A. Bennett 1914-1915
16 Herbert C. Fish - R. M. Black 1908-1914
17 Herbert C. Fish - Michael H. Brennan 1914
18 Herbert C. Fish - Usher L. Burdick 1912-1914
19 Herbert C. Fish - Charles Burr 1910-1912
20 Herbert C. Fish - Bessie J./Theodore G. Carter  1913-1914
21 Herbert C. Fish - Thomas E. Cooper 1909
22 Herbert C. Fish - Arthur G. Crane 1913-1915
23 Herbert C. Fish - Gilbert S. Cryne 1912-1914
24 Herbert C. Fish - Frances Densmore 1912-1915
25 Herbert C. Fish - D. J. Dodge  1910-1914
26 Herbert C. Fish - Alfred C. Farrell 1910-1912
27 Herbert C. Fish - Frank B. Fiske 1913-1914
28 Herbert C. Fish - James W. Foley 1907-1914
29 Herbert C. Fish - Elmer E. Greene 1912
30 Herbert C. Fish - Charles Lemon Hall  1910-1913
31 Herbert C. Fish - Susan Hall 1910-1914

Box 3:
1 Herbert C. Fish - Louis B. Hanna 1909-1915
2 Herbert C. Fish - Jack M. Hansen 1915
3 Herbert C. Fish - Joseph Mills Hanson 1907-1911
4 Herbert C. Fish - Carolette S. Hoffman 1908-1911
5 Herbert C. Fish - Charles W. Hoffman 1907-1912
6 Herbert C. Fish - James Holding Eagle 1909-1914
7 Herbert C. Fish - Fred Huber 1910
8 Herbert C. Fish - Luther C. Ives 1910-1915
9 Herbert C. Fish - William Jayne 1914
10 Herbert C. Fish - Fanny Kelly capture 1912-1913
11 Herbert C. Fish - Frank J. V. Kiebert 1909-1911
12 Herbert C. Fish - George W. Kingsbury 1912-1915
13 Herbert C. Fish - Joseph A. Kitchen 1910-1914
14 Herbert C. Fish - G. E. Laidlaw 1909-1915
15 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1907
16 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1908
17 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1909
18 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1910
19 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1911
20 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1912
21 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1913
22 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1914
23 Herbert C. Fish - O. G. Libby 1915
24 Herbert C. Fish - Clement A. Lounsberry 1913
25 Herbert C. Fish - Grant Marsh 1914
26 Herbert C. Fish - William McCarty 1914
27 Herbert C. Fish - T. F. McCue 1907-1908
28 Herbert C. Fish - George A. McFarland 1909-1915
29 Herbert C. Fish - Ray McKaig  1912-1914
30 Herbert C. Fish - Jessie McKenzie 1908-1913
31 Herbert C. Fish - Warren K. Moorehead, Phillips Academy 1909
32 Herbert C. Fish - Frank Myers 1909-1913
33 Herbert C. Fish - J. M. Near 1913
34 Herbert C. Fish - Ragnvald A. Nestos 1907-1912
35 Herbert C. Fish - Theor Northrup 1910

Box 4:
1 Herbert C. Fish - W. B. Overson 1909-1913
2 Herbert C. Fish - Bertha Palmer 1910-1914
3 Herbert C. Fish - Doane Robinson 1908-1914
4 Herbert C. Fish - Harry L. Rockwood 1909-1910
5 Herbert C. Fish - Alexander Sage 1908-1915
6 Herbert C. Fish - Linda Savage 1906-1909
7 Herbert C. Fish - John Sprecher 1913
8 Herbert C. Fish - State Auditor  1907-1914
9 Herbert C. Fish - State Historical Society of Wisconsin   1908-1914
10 Herbert C. Fish - Alex Steinbach 1911-1915
11 Herbert C. Fish - Ernst R. Steinbrueck 1907-1914
12 Herbert C. Fish - A. B. Stout   1909-1912
13 Herbert C. Fish - W. J. Trimble 1911-1912
14 Herbert C. Fish - Otis A. Tye   1908-1909
15 Herbert C. Fish - Helen Veeder 1910
16 Herbert C. Fish - George F. Will 1910-1915
17 Herbert C. Fish - Wisconsin Archaeological Society 1908
18 Herbert C. Fish - Dana Wright 1913-1915
19 Herbert C. Fish - Victor Brazda Indian Artifact Collection 1908
20 Misc. and undated correspondence  n.d.
21 Bismarck History 1870s n.d.
22 Fort Rice-Gwyther, Dedication 1909-1913
23 Fort Rice-Gwyther - M. K. and Robert Gwyther 1909
24 Fort Rice-Gwyther - P. J. McCumber  1909-1910
25 Fort Rice-Gwyther - Northern Pacific Railway 1909-1910
26 James Holding Eagle, "Story of the Circle Game" 1911
27 Indian biographical notes, information on reservations and reservation schools 1909, 1912
28 Herbert C. Fish - Killdeer Mountain 50th Anniversary 1914
29 Ransom County History, unidentified mss n.d.
30 Herbert C. Fish - Sibley Campaign of 1863 1912-1913
31 Herbert C. Fish - Sully Expedition of 1863 articles n.d.
32 Herbert C. Fish - Sully and Fisk Expeditions notes 1913, n.d.
33 Ephemera 1907-1919

Box 5:
1 Melvin R. Gilmore - Alabama Department of History and Archives 1918, 1921
2 Melvin R. Gilmore - J. D. Allen 1918-1919
3 Melvin R. Gilmore - American Association of Museums 1920-1922
4 Melvin R. Gilmore - American Museum of Natural History 1917-1923
5 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. M. Anderson 1917
6 Melvin R. Gilmore - C. W. Andrews 1917, 1919
7 Melvin R. Gilmore - Thomas P. Ashley 1921-1922
8 Melvin R. Gilmore - Franz A. Aust 1921
9 Melvin R. Gilmore - Vernon Bailey 1916-1922
10 Melvin R. Gilmore - W. H. Bateson 1922, n.d.
11 Melvin R. Gilmore - Alfred Bear 1916-1922
12 Melvin R. Gilmore - Aaron McGaffey Beede 1916-1923
13 Melvin R. Gilmore - H. Howard Biggar 1916-1918
14 Melvin R. Gilmore - Frank Bingenheimer 1916-1917
15 Melvin R. Gilmore - George H. Bingenheimer 1917-1920
16 Melvin R. Gilmore - Charles E. Brown, State Historical Society of Wisconsin 1916-1922
17 Melvin R. Gilmore - Solon Buck, Minnesota Historical Society 1920, 1923
18 Melvin R. Gilmore - Bureau of American Ethnology & Smithsonian 1916-1922
19 Melvin R. Gilmore - Lulah Cavalier 1917, 1923
20 Melvin R. Gilmore - Frederic E. Clements, University of Minnesota Dept. of Botany 1916-1920
21 Melvin R. Gilmore - F. E. Cobb, USDA Northern Great Plains Field Station, Mandan 1919, 1921
22 Melvin R. Gilmore - Commissioner of Indian Affairs 1921-1923
23 Melvin R. Gilmore - Elizabeth B. Custer 1917
24 Melvin R. Gilmore - Frances Densmore 1916, 1919
25 Melvin R. Gilmore - F. E. Farrell 1920-1923
26 Melvin R. Gilmore - H. C. Fish  1916-1917
27 Melvin R. Gilmore - G. Clyde Fisher 1921
28 Melvin R. Gilmore - Clell Gannon 1920-1922
29 Melvin R. Gilmore - Grand Lodge Library 1916-1922
30 Melvin R. Gilmore - George Bird Grinnell 1916-1922
31 Melvin R. Gilmore - Louis B. Hanna 1916-1919
32 Melvin R. Gilmore - N. E. Hanson 1918-1921
33 Melvin R. Gilmore - Mrs. C. B. Harris, ND Federation of Women's Clubs 1916-1919
34 Melvin R. Gilmore - Frithjof Holmboe  1916-1918
35 Melvin R. Gilmore - Indian Scouts' Pensions  1919-1921
36 Melvin R. Gilmore - Charles H. Lee 1916-1917
37 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. G. Libby 1916
38 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. G. Libby 1917
39 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. G. Libby 1918

Box 6:
1 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. G. Libby 1919
2 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. G. Libby 1920
3 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. G. Libby 1921
4 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. G. Libby 1922-1923
5 Melvin R. Gilmore - C. W. McDonnell   1918-1923
6 Melvin R. Gilmore - Mississippi Valley Historical Association 1919-1921
7 Melvin R. Gilmore - Missouri Historical Society 1918, 1920
8 Melvin R. Gilmore - National Research Council 1917-1921
9 Melvin R. Gilmore - Nebraska State Historical Society  1916-1923
10 Melvin R. Gilmore – Newspapers 1916-1923
11 Melvin R. Gilmore - Arthur R. Nichols 1919-1921
12 Melvin R. Gilmore - Minnie Jean Nielson 1916, 1922
13 Melvin R. Gilmore - North Dakota State Agencies 1917-1922
14 Melvin R. Gilmore - A. M. Perdriaux 1916-1923
15 Melvin R. Gilmore - Mrs. Thomas L. Riggs 1917
16 Melvin R. Gilmore - Col. Theodore Roosevelt 1917
17 Melvin R. Gilmore - Roosevelt Memorial Association 1922-1923
18 Melvin R. Gilmore - W. E. Safford 1917-1920
19 Melvin R. Gilmore - Gen. Hugh L. Scott 1919
20 Melvin R. Gilmore - Howard E. Simpson 1917-1922
21 Melvin R. Gilmore - South Dakota Dept. of History 1921, 1923
22 Melvin R. Gilmore - W. E. Spokesfield 1920-1923
23 Melvin R. Gilmore - O. A. Stevens 1916-1923
24 Melvin R. Gilmore - A. B. Stout, New York Botanical Garden 1917-1921
25 Melvin R. Gilmore - John R. Swanton, Bureau of American Ethnology 1918-1922
26 Melvin R. Gilmore - U.S. Agencies 1916-1923
27 Melvin R. Gilmore - U.S. Dept. of Agriculture 1916-1922
28 Melvin R. Gilmore - U.S. Dept. of Justice 1917
29 Melvin R. Gilmore - U.S. Indian Field Service 1919-1922
30 Melvin R. Gilmore - War History Commission 1918-1922
31 Melvin R. Gilmore - War Posters 1916-1922

Box 7:
1 Melvin R. Gilmore - A. B. Welch 1916-1922
2 Melvin R. Gilmore - W. M. Wemett 1920
3 Melvin R. Gilmore - Gilbert L. Wilson 1918, 1922
4 Melvin R. Gilmore - Nina Farley Wishek 1921-1923
5 Melvin R. Gilmore - Dana Wright 1919-1923
6 Melvin R. Gilmore - A. H. Yoder 1917-1921
7 Melvin R. Gilmore - Francis B. Zahn 1916-1917
8 Melvin R. Gilmore - Zitkala-Sa 1920
9 Melvin R. Gilmore 1916
10 Melvin R. Gilmore 1917
11 Melvin R. Gilmore 1918
12 Melvin R. Gilmore 1919
13 Melvin R. Gilmore January-June 1920
14 Melvin R. Gilmore July-December 1920

Box 8:
1 Melvin R. Gilmore January-June 1921
2 Melvin R. Gilmore July-December 1921
3 Newspaper clippings   1908-1915
3 Melvin R. Gilmore January-June 1922
4 Melvin R. Gilmore July-December 1922
5 Melvin R. Gilmore 1923
6 Melvin R. Gilmore - Correspondence, undated    n.d.
7 Arikara Tribal Temple by Melvin Gilmore n.d.
8 Gilmore articles: Geographic Influences in Human Culture, History of Corn, Dakota Presentation Ceremony, Victory Dance at Standing Rock 1918, n.d.
9 Misc.  1923, n.d.
10 Newspaper Clippings 1910-1915

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