Joseph Gallio Masters Collection

Manuscript Collection No. 66

• Introduction
• Biography
• Scope and Content
• Contents List
• Additional Information for Researchers

Introduction

The papers of Joseph G. Masters, principal of Central High School in Omaha, and historian, were given to the Kansas State Historical Society by him in 1943.

Linear feet of shelf space occupied: 1
Number of items: 346

There are no restrictions on access to these papers.

The subject of literary rights was not addressed at the time of donation, consequently copyright is presumed to belong to Joseph G. Masters’ heirs.

This collection has been arranged to the folder level, described to the series level, listed to the file-unit (folder) level, and cataloged to the collection level. The entire collection has been microfilmed.

Biography

Joseph Gallio Masters was born 20 February 1873, in Harvey County, Kansas. At the age of eighteen he attended the Kansas State Normal School at Emporia (now Emporia State University), where he obtained a teaching certificate by examination. He taught in Harvey County while continuing to study at the normal school, and he received diplomas in the academic and Latin courses in 1904. From Harvey County he moved to the Indian Territory, where he was principal of a Choctaw boys’ school and superintendent of schools at Wilburton. During the summers he studied at the University of Chicago, receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees there.

He became superintendent of the booming Tulsa school district in 1906, and in 1912 became a high-school principal in Oklahoma City. Three years later he became principal of Central High in Omaha. Active in educational organizations, he was one of the founders of the National Honor Society. It was during his tenure at Central High that he began researching the history of the American West and traveling across the United States each summer interviewing and researching various aspects of Western United States history. His research produced the books Stories of the Far West (1935) and Shadows Fall Across the Little Horn (1951). He retired in 1939 and spent the next three years as director of the Omaha Roundtable of Christians and Jews and supervisor of education in Omaha for the federal Work Projects Administration.

In 1943 he and his wife moved to her family home in Pennsylvania, where he died 19 May 1954.
Additional biographical information may be found in “Joseph G. Masters, 1873-1954, “Nebraska History, 36 (March 1955) : 55-70 (in the Library: GL 978.206 N27 v. 36 p. 55).

Scope and Content

The Joseph G. Masters collection represents a part of his many years’ work to research and verify Western American history by traveling to the actual sites of historical events and interviewing participants. The collection is rife with correspondence between Masters and local postmasters and other officials as he sought to learn the names of pioneers or “old timers” in an area of whom he could request interviews. Masters was one of a number of researchers of that period interested in verifying facts about the Old West while many of the participants were yet living.

While much of the correspondence relates to his efforts to locate historical source materials, the series also reflects his participation in the Oregon Trail centennial association and other historical organizations. His correspondents include officials of the National Park Service, State and local historical societies, and similar organizations.

Included in Masters’ “Miscellaneous Notes” are a wide variety of primary and secondary accounts on a large number of popular Western topics including trails, battles, and Indians. The series combines the features of a scrapbook of clippings and articles with notes prepared before and during his summer research trips, transcriptions of interviews, bibliographies, and historical research notes.

The “Memorandum Books” are similar to the “Miscellaneous Notes” in content, but obviously more transitory in nature. They were meant to be taken with him as he traveled and include short notes of descriptions that are supplemented by more extensive notes or research in the “Miscellaneous Notes.”

The primary value of this collection may be its notes and transcriptions of interviews with surviving participants of noted Western events. Researchers studying the Old West will also find much of Masters’ research to be helpful in locating sources extant in the 1930’s and newspaper and other articles on Western topics. Researchers interested in western trails and battles will particularly find Masters’ research and on-site research notes to be of value.

Other collections of Masters’ papers are held by the Nebraska State Historical Society and the Denver Public Library Western History Department. Copies of their finding aids are available at the Kansas State Historical Society. In addition, the society’s Photograph Division holds a collection of photographs of the Santa Fe Trail taken by Masters (TE. SF.). The Library has copies of his two books and other articles by him as well as published biographical information about him.
Other manuscript collections that include collected interviews and other firsthand accounts of life in the pioneer West recorded in early twentieth century include the William Elsey Connelley collection (#16), the Lilla Day Monroe Collection of Pioneer Stories (#163, also on microfilm), and the Jessie (Kennedy) Snell collection (#80). Numerous other nineteenth-century collections of papers and diaries provide accounts of events in Kansas and other Western States.

Contents List

Series Descriptions

A. Correspondence. 1921-1938. 1 In. (86 items)

Draft and final letters sent and letters received relating to Masters’ research interests. Much of the correspondence is with local historians, federal and State officials of whom Masters inquired for information or names of contacts; pioneers and their descendants; and other writers of Western history. Some of the letters relate to the Neihardt Club of Omaha and the committee to commemorate the centennial of the Oregon Trail. Also included are interviews with elderly people and their recollections of places, facts, and events, and a facsimile of a letter from Will Rogers to George W. Rainey thanking the latter for a copy of his book. Subjects embraced in this series include locations of historic events; Kit Carson; the Battle of the Washita; Custer’s 1868-69 Indian campaign; the 19th Kansas Cavalry; the capture of Sarah White; military posts in the Indian Territory; Crazy Horse and Fort Robinson, Nebraska; the Donner party; the California gold rush; Billy the Kid; Lewis and Clark; a proposed Jedediah Smith monument; and Homestead National Monument. Correspondents include Paul C. Henderson, Verne E. Chatelain, Dan W. Peery, Kirke Mechem, Floyd C. Shoemaker, Merrill J. Mattes, T. L. Green, Olive K. Dixon, Mrs. Arthur Hulbert, and James W. Moffitt.
Arranged chronologically with undated letters at the beginning.

B. Miscellaneous Notes [Notes on Research Topics]. 1900-1939. 8 In. (252 Items)

It is not known whether the title “Miscellaneous Notes” was given to this material by Masters or the archivist who first processed this collection. This series consists of correspondence with libraries, local historians, site curators, historical societies, and related organizations; copies of articles; excerpts of articles and other writings; interviews with participants in historic events and their descendants; itineraries; lists of people and places to see on trips; bibliographies; and field notes taken during his research. Within each subject grouping, the material has been left in its original order. Because of the interrelatedness of the various components, no attempt has been made to separate or further arrange them. Much of the material in this series was originally arranged into notebooks. Subjects include the Powder River country; Bozeman, Oregon, and Santa Fe trails; Wagon Box Fight; Fetterman Massacre; Cody—Yellow Hand duel; Indian battles; Indian dances and legends; Jim Bridger; battlefields of the West and the Washita, the Little Big Horn, Adobe Walls, and Beecher’s Island battles; the Pony Express; the California gold rush; Mormons; Chief Joseph; Dakota and Cheyenne accounts of battles; archeology; Fort Supply, Indian Territory; Pueblo life; Medicine Lodge, Kansas; and Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Arranged into broad but related subject groupings.

C. Memorandum Books. 1933-1936. 3 In. (I Vols.)

Books apparently used by Masters while on summer field trips. The books contain trip logs, lists of historic sites, names of people to contact, short sketches of historical events, and brief notes of interviews. Subjects include the Oregon and California trails and Dakota Indians.
Arranged by year and thereunder by volume number.

Microfilm/Box List

Additional Information for Researchers

Suggested Citation

The suggested citation form for this collection is:
[name of document], [date of document], [series], Joseph G. Masters collection (#66), Library & Archives Division, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka. Box numbers are not necessary but often can help archivists locate materials more quickly.

Some examples of specific documents:

J.S. Duncan to J. G. Masters, 21 Sept. 1933, folder 8, Correspondence (series A, box 1), Joseph G. Masters collection, #66, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka, Library and Archives Division.

“Log 1933,” “The Southwest (1933),” 1920-1934, folder 18, “Miscellaneous Notes,” 1900-1939, series B, box 2, Joseph G. Masters collection, #66, Library & Archives Division, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka.

1934 4:10, vol. 6, “Memorandum Books,” 1933-1936, series C, box 2, Joseph G. Masters collection, #66, Library & Archives Division, Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka.

Kansas State Historical Society
Manuscripts Department

Processed by

Snell, 1950s

Reprocessed by

Knecht, 1986

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