Guide to the Helen S. Giffen papers
M. Carey
University of California, Santa Cruz
2013
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz 95064
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu
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
Access
Collection open for research.
Use Restrictions
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.
Preferred Citation
Helen S. Giffen papers. MS 315. Special Collections and Archives, University Library,
University of California, Santa Cruz.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Judith Steen and Barbara Giffen, 1988.
Biography
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".
Processing Information
Processed by: M. Carey. Date Completed: 5/20/2014. Encoded by: M. Carey
Related Material
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
box-folder 1:2-3
Pt. 1 "A Stormy Petrel of Santa Cruz: Biography of Georgiana Bruce
Kirby",
1978-1979
box-folder 1:2
"From Birth to Maturity",
1818-1849
box-folder 1:3
"The Santa Cruz Years",
1850-1887
box-folder 1:4
"The Stormy Petral of Santa Cruz: A Brief Biography of Georgiana Bruce
Kirby",
1976
box-folder 1:5
"The Stormy Petral of Santa Cruz: The Life, Letters and Journal of Georgiana
Bruce Kirby" - annotated typescripts,
ca. 1970-1976
box-folder 1:6
Drafts of earlier versions - annotated typescripts,
ca. 1970-1979
box-folder 1:7
Notes, additional drafts - holograph copies, annotated typescripts,
ca. 1970-1979
box-folder 1:8
"Das Tagebuch" by G.B. Kirby - photocopies
1852-1860
box-folder 1:9
"Das Tagebuch" by G.B. Kirby, with corrections and amplifications by Helen S.
Giffen - typescript
1933
box-folder 1:10
Obituary, clippings,
ca. 1970-1987
