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Harriet Mills McKay and Douglas McKay Papers, 1911-1949

Collection Overview

Title: Harriet Mills McKay and Douglas McKay Papers, 1911-1949

ID: OGLMC/1482

Creator: McKay, Harriet (1896-1949)

Extent: 1.25 Linear Feet

Date Acquired: 11/00/2003

Languages: English [eng]

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The first folder has UND documents containing Douglas McKay’s membership certificate in Sigma Chi, pages and photocopies from The Dacotah with pictures of Harriet McKay and information about the UND football team, as well as photocopies from The Alumni Review with information about the lives of Harriet and Douglas McKay, as well as Olive Mills Moe. The second folder consists of the program from Douglas McKay’s high school graduation as well as programs from UND events ranging from school dances to graduations. The third folder consists of articles from the Grand Forks Herald about Harriet McKay, and from Walsh Heritage, with a biography of the McKay family, as well as printouts from Ancestry.com containing Douglas McKay’s military record and Harriet McKay’s entry in the California Death Index. The final folder contains four photographs from Harriet McKay’s UND drama career.

There is one oversize folder with articles from the Grand Forks Herald, The Industrial Collegian, The Student, The Fargo Daily Courier-News, and The St. Paul Pioneer Press. These articles are about the UND football team on which Douglas participated.

Harriet Mills-McKay was a UND Graduate from the class of 1920, who found great interest in theater arts and mainly poetry. This collection consists of poems written, typed, and published from the different periods of her life, beginning with her travels with her husband in the Western United States during his time in different mining camps. Some of the poetry was even written during her captive years in the Philippines during World War II. The poems are organized into folders by location and topic and organized as chronologically as possible within the box. The collection has a wide range of loose papers, journals, typed and published poetry. There are likely multiple copies of certain poems as some of them are both handwritten and typed into publications.

Administrative Information

Accruals: Mary McKay Maynard donated additional material in July 2023; 2023-3483

Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.

Acquisition Source: Mary McKay Maynard, Westport, Connecticut

Acquisition Method: Donation; 2005-2730

Preferred Citation: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.

Processing Information: The addition was processed by Alex Bass, Amelia Benware, Sean Hannon, and Andrew Simon, History 240 students, in October 2023.

Finding Aid Revision History: Finding aid added to Archon in November 2013.


Box and Folder Listing

Box 1Add to your cart.
Folder 1: UND Documents, 1914-1949Add to your cart.
Folder 2: Programs, 1911-1920Add to your cart.
Folder 3: Photocopies from The Grand Forks Herald and Walsh Heritage, also printouts from Ancestry.com, 1981Add to your cart.
Folder 4: PhotographsAdd to your cart.
Photograph 1: Harriet Mills in UND play c. 1918, center in cowboy hat.Add to your cart.
Photograph 2: Harriet Mills in “As You Like It.” Harriet far right.Add to your cart.
Photograph 3: Harriet Mills in UND play.Add to your cart.
Photograph 4: Harriet Mills in “I Saw a Star Dance”, 1918Add to your cart.
Folder 5: Biographical InformationAdd to your cart.
Folder 6: Troubadour: Nevada Number. Edited by Harriet Mills McKay. 1932Add to your cart.
Folder 7: "Book One", 1929-1933Add to your cart.
Folder 8: "Unselected, Unclassified Poems by Harriet Mills McKay", 1930-1941Add to your cart.
Folder 9: Self Published JournalsAdd to your cart.
Item 1: "Sun Way", 1932Add to your cart.
Item 2: "Spindraft", 1933Add to your cart.
Item 3: Untitled, 1933-1943Add to your cart.
Folder 10: "Book Two", 1934-1936Add to your cart.
Folder 11: "Book Three", 1937-1941Add to your cart.
Folder 12: Untitled Book of Poetry, 1942-1948Add to your cart.
Folder 13: Loose Poems Written in the PhilippinesAdd to your cart.
Folder 14: Poems Sent to Publishers Index, 1944-1948Add to your cart.
Folder 15: Loose Poems Written in Berkley, CaliforniaAdd to your cart.
Folder 16: Loose Poems Written in Oregon, Nevada, and Sweetwater, CaliforniaAdd to your cart.
Folder 17: Loose Published PoemsAdd to your cart.
Folder 18: Loose Poems with No LocationAdd to your cart.