Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
Guide to the Ruby El Hult Papers
1924-2005
Cage 793
Table of Contents
Summary Information
- Repository
- Washington State University Libraries, Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections
- Title
- Ruby El Hult Papers
- ID
- Cage 793
- Date [inclusive]
- 1924-2005
- Extent
- .4 feet of linear shelf space, 1 box
- Language
- Collection materials are in:
- Abstract
- This collection includes research material and correspondence related to several of Ruby El Hult's articles and books.
Preferred Citation
[Item Description] Ruby El Hult Papers, 1924-2005
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections Washington State University Libraries Pullman, WA
Biography/History
[Copied from the guide to Cage 47, a separate collection of Ruby El Hult's papers]
Washington author Ruby El Hult (1912-2008) was born in Belgrove, Idaho, to John Adolf and Carolina (Pearson) Hult. She graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane in 1932, and was a student at the University of Washington during 1945-46. After holding various secretarial positions between 1942 and 1949, she served as assistant editor of the Washington State Journal of Nursing in Seattle from 1949 to 1952. During this time, she completed a number of short stories for writing classes she took between 1924 and 1953.
In the early 1950s, Hult began a freelancing writing career that continued for decades, publishing articles and opinion pieces concerning Pacific Northwest historical and conservation issues. She also began to publish a number of books on the Pacific Northwest, beginning with Steamboats in the Timber in 1952 (a second edition was published in 1968). That was followed by Untamed Olympics in 1954 (a second edition was published in 1971), and Lost Mines and Treasures of the Pacific Northwest in 1957. A sequel to that book, Treasure Hunting Northwest, was published in 1971. In 1960, both Northwest Disaster: Avalanche and Fire and Guns of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (an expanded version of the June 6, 1955 article in Guns Magazine, "The Arms that Won an Empire") were published. The second edition of her last book, Herb Crisler in the Olympic Mountain Wilds (originally published in 1977), was published in 1992.
During this time, Hult maintained ties with a small group of Pacific Northwest women writers, historians and book lovers, some of whom she had met in the late 1930s. Up through 1980s and 1990s, Hult regularly corresponded with these women, who were both friends and professional colleagues. These included Hazel Corbeill, Eleanor Garst, Martha Livingston and Eleanor Marion Saunders. In 1980, Hult and Saunders published their correspondence over the years in a compendium called The Cockalorum Chronicles: New Words Between Old Friends: Correspondence of Elizabeth Marion Saunders and Ruby El Hult.
Ruby El Hult was married first to S. John Sether, who died in 1959. She married her second husband, Raymond L. McAndrew, in 1961. He died in 1978.
Scope and Content
This collection includes research material and correspondence related to several of Ruby El Hult's articles and books (published and unpublished), as well as a small amount of her published work and a file of correspondence with the Washington State University Libraries about donating her papers.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in a single series.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections 2013
http://www.libraries.wsu.edu/masc/
Terrell Library
P.O. Box 645610
Pullman, WA, 99164-5610 USA
509-335-6691
mascref@wsu.edu
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open and available for research use.
Restrictions on Use
Copyright restrictions apply.
Acquisition Information
Lorraine Plummer, sister of Ruby El Hult, donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries in 2005 (MS.2005.01).
Processing Information
Cheryl Gunselman processed this collection in 2013.
Related Materials
Related Material
Ruby El Hult Papers, 1924-1994 (Cage 47) and Ruby El Hult Correspondence with Washington State University Press, 1989-1998 (Cage 794).
Names and Subjects
Personal Name(s)
Subject(s) :
- Hult, Ruby El, 1912-2008 -- Archives
- Hult, Ruby El, 1912-2008 -- Correspondence
Subject(s)
- Authors, American -- 20th century -- Correspondence
- Women
- Washington (State)
Detailed Description of Collection
| box | folder | |||
|
Periodicals with articles by Ruby El Hult 1952-1955 |
1 | 1 | ||
|
Grand Gulch -- The Basketmakers and the Ruins of the Four Corners (typescript draft) 1979 |
1 | 2 | ||
|
Great Idaho Fire of 1910 (typescript, 1955 version) 1955 |
1 | 3 | ||
|
The West Resembles No Woman (typescript, draft) circa 1930s-1940s |
1 | 4 | ||
|
Ingalls Creek (subject file containing research materials and correspondence) 1966-1969 |
1 | 5 | ||
|
Lost Ingalls Creek Mine (drafts, notes, and collected research materials) 1951-1975 |
1 | 6 | ||
|
My Love Affair with the Coeur d'Alene and St. Joe Country (typescript of speech) 1968 |
1 | 7 | ||
|
Interview with Perry Fleming, "Hard Work and Hell Raising" (typed transcription) 1969 |
1 | 8 | ||
|
Log Brands (article correspondence) 1977-1978 |
1 | 9 | ||
|
Lee Carpenter (correspondence and issues of the Senior Post, a newsletter published in St. Maries, ID) 1997-2000 |
1 | 10 | ||
|
Steamboats fan mail 1952-1990 |
1 | 11 | ||
|
Correspondence with WSU Archives 1959-2004 |
1 | 12 | ||
|
Peter Berglov (photocopy of original letter in Swedish, English translation, and explanation by Lorraine Plummer) 1924-2005 |
1 | 13 | ||