This collection contains interviews detailing the everyday lives of women in Montana during the first half of the 20th century. It contains histories of women from a variety of economic, social, and political backgrounds and includes the stories of immigrants, ranchers, and nurses. The interviews were conducted from 1972 to 1981 by Mary Melcher, Pam Frasier, Kathy White, Eleanor Wend, and Diane Sands. The interviewees discuss the role of and attitudes about women in the early decades of the 20th century. Topics include women’s suffrage, Prohibition, courtship and marriage, women’s fashion, birth control, midwifery, sex education, and child care and rearing. The original interviews are held as Oral History collection OH 049 at Archives and Special Collections, Mansfield Library, University of Montana-Missoula.
Note: Some of the interviewees for this project requested to remain anonymous in the transcript and audio. Because those interviewees are now deceased, Archives and Special Collections has chosen to lift this anonymity restriction.
This collection includes 60 interviews.
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Rhoda Richardson Interview, March 24, 1977
Rhoda Richardson
Rhoda Richardson discusses her parents’ childhoods, their marriage, and the jobs her father took before the family moved to Lothrop, Montana. She describes how her close relationship with her mother and boarding with friends in Missoula while getting her high school education. Richardson recalls the ... Read More
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Rita Thibodeau Lavoie Interview, July 30, 1981
Rita Thibodeau Lavoie
Rita Thibodeau Lavoie discusses her childhood in Milltown, including her relationship with her family and her schooling, as well as entertainment when she was growing up. She talks about the segregation between the French, Finnish, and Swedish communities, her relationship to the Catholic Church, and ... Read More
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Rose Bryant Interview, September 12, 1978
Rose Bryant
Rose Bryant briefly discusses her childhood moving with her family from North Dakota to Melstone, Montana, because her father worked for the railroad. She talks about singing and learning to play the organ while attending Sunday school and high school and how those experiences led ... Read More
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Rose Bryant Interview, September 21, 1978
Rose Bryant
Rose Bryant describes working as a silent movie player at a theater in Three Forks, Montana. She recalls sometimes being accompanied by other musicians and playing for the Rangers Annual Ball at Yellowstone National Park. Bryant discusses popular silent movie stars and films before offering ... Read More
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Sarah Caroline Ross Johnston Interview, July 27, 1977
Sarah Caroline Johnston
Caroline Johnston describes growing up on her family’s farm in Indiana during the 1890s. She discusses her daily chores of raising ducks and chicken and milking the cows. Johnston talks about her family’s participation in social events and their holiday traditions. She recalls moving to ... Read More
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Sophie Guthrie Interview, August 1976
Sophie Guthrie
Sophie Guthrie describes her family’s move to Montana, and the homestead her father built while her mother took care of seven children alone. She recalls attending school in Bozeman and taking care of her sister’s two children. Guthrie talks about moving onto one of the ... Read More
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Susie Huston Interview, August 1976
Susie Huston
Susie Huston describes growing up in Missouri on a ranch with her large family, attending church there, doing chores, and celebrating holidays with her parents and siblings. She mentions moving to Kansas and then California, where she married in 1914 before settling in Montana to ... Read More
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Thyra Haugen Interview, August 9, 1977
Thyra Haugen
Thyra Haugen describes how her family emigrated from Copenhagen, Denmark, to the United States and her childhood Minneapolis, Minnesota during the 1890s. She talks about the chores she did, attending school, and working as a clerk in a store when she was a teenager. Haugen ... Read More
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Viola Bennett Interview, November 14, 1978
Viola Bennett
Viola Bennett gives a brief biographical sketch of her life, beginning with her family’s move from Missouri to Montana in 1898 and their settlement on a ranch in Wolf Creek. Bennett describes her community’s social gatherings, such as dances and house parties, as well as ... Read More
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Winifred Tisdale Interview, April 1977
Winifred Tisdale
Winifred Tisdale discusses her affiliation with the Yellowstone Club in Livingston, Montana, and the club’s focus on program committees, organization and charter, and the literary events. She briefly describes the role that the club had in the creation and continued funding of the Park County ... Read More