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Giffen (Helen S.) papers
MS.315
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Contributing Institution:
University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Helen S. Giffen papers
Creator:
Giffen, Helen S. (Helen Smith),
1893-
Identifier/Call Number: MS.315
Physical Description:
.5 Linear Feet
1 document box
Date (inclusive): 1980-1989
Abstract: This small collection includes Helen
Giffen's notes & manuscripts on Georgiana Bruce Kirby.
Language of Material:
English
Collection open for research.
Copyright for the items in this collection is owned by the creators and their heirs. Reproduction or distribution of any work
protected by
copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the copyright owner. It
is the responsibility of the user to determine whether a use is fair use, and to obtain any
necessary permissions. For more information see UCSC Special Collections and Archives policy
on Reproduction and Use.
Helen S. Giffen papers. MS 315. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Gift of Judith Steen and Barbara Giffen, 1988.
Helen Smith Gifffen was born in Alabama in 1894 and came to California as a infant. Her
father, Edmund Morton Smith, had been hired as a reporter by the Los Angeles Times. He died
a few months lateer, in a train accident, while on his way to a newspapers assignment in
Colorado.
Mrs. Giffen's mother, who was a teacher, opened a private school in Los Angeles to support
herself and her daughter. Mrs. Giffen studied there, along with a young man from nearby San
Gabriel, named George Patton, who went on to make the Army a career.
Mrs. Giffen went to high school and business college in the Los Angeles area, where she
later worked as a secretary for an exclusive women's club, as a mechanical engineer and as
secretary for the city's Southwest Museum, where she said she became interested in
California history.
She married Guy Giffen, an oil company executive, in 1922 and quit work. She returned to
work, however, in the 1930s after her husband suffered a crippling heart attack. He died in
the 1960s.
Mrs. Giffen was hired as Executive Secretary for the Society of California Pioneers, a
male-dominated San Francisco group, in 1941 at a time when American men were heading off to
World War II. The Society of California Pioneers was founded in August 1850 to ferret out
and preserve state history and was patronized, from the start, by wealthy merchants and
businesmen, such as James Lick.
Her writings, which she began shortly after taking the job with the Society of California
Pioneers, included "Story of El Tejon (Pass)", "The Wife of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo",
"Newspapers of the Mother Lode, 1850-1880", "Historical Adobe Houses of California", "Casas
and Courtyards", and "the Story of Golden Gate Park". She edited "The Diary of Peter
Decker", "The Land of Good Fortune", and "Georgiana: Feminist Reformer of the West".
Mrs. Giffen died in October 1987 in Los Gatos, CA.
San Jose Mercury News, October 30, 1987
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection contains a small amount of correspondence, Kirby's notes, early drafts of
manuscripts on Georgiana Bruce Kirby as well as photocopies of Kirby's diary "Das
Tagebuch".
Processed by: M. Carey. Date Completed: 5/20/2014. Encoded by: M. Carey
Georgiana : feminist reformer of the West : the journal of Georgiana Bruce
Kirby
, HQ1413.K57 A3 1987
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Women pioneers -- California
Women social reformers --
California
Santa Cruz County (Calif.) -- History
Kirby, Georgiana Bruce, 1818-1887