Guide to the Ina Coolbrith Circle Records, 1921-1969
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California Historical Society
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678 Mission Street
San Francisco, California 94105-4014
Phone: (415) 357-1848, ext. 220
Fax: (415) 357-1850
Email: reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
© 2000
California Historical Society. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Ina Coolbrith Circle Records, 1921-1969
Collection number: MS 457
California Historical Society
North Baker Research Library
San Francisco, California
Contact Information:
- California Historical Society
- North Baker Research Library
- 678 Mission Street
- San Francisco, California 94105-4014
- Phone: (415) 357-1848, ext. 220
- Fax: (415) 357-1850
- Email: reference@calhist.org
- URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
- Processed by:
- California Historical Society staff
© 2000 California Historical Society. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Ina Coolbrith Circle Records,
Date (inclusive): 1921-1969
Collection number: MS 457
Creator:
Ina Coolbrith Circle, 1919-1969
Extent: 3 boxes
Repository:
California Historical Society, North Baker Library
San Francisco, California 94105-4014
Language:
English.
Administrative Information
Access
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to The North Baker Research Library. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing
to the Library Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of The North Baker Research Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained by the reader.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Ina Coolbrith Circle Records. MS 457, California Historical Society, North Baker Research Library.
History
The Ina Coolbrith Circle was organized in 1919 in memory of Ina Coolbrith, California's first poet laureate. The stated purpose
of the Circle was the study of the history and literature of California, the discussion of member's works, and the assembling
and presentation of their personal and literary reminiscences.
The Circle was patterned after the California Literature Society, which was itself an outgrowth of a neighborhood youth club
founded by Ella Sterling Cummins Mighels, a California literary historian. The California Literature Society was informal
and met once a month at Coolbrith's home until 1916.
The Ina Coolbrith Circle met once a month, first at the St. Francis Hotel, then in the Assembly Room of the San Francisco
Public Library, and later at the Western Women's Club. More of a social club than a platform for established poets, the Circle
sponsored lecture presentations, poetry readings, musical programs and annual poetry contests. The members also maintained
a library and engaged in campaigns to save Ina Coolbrith Park in San Francisco, to name a Sierra Nevada peak after Ina Coolbrith,
and to prevent the state legislature from naming an unpublished poet (and member of the legislature) California poet laureate.
Ina Coolbrith was living in New York at the time the Circle was formed and met with its members for the first time in 1920.
In 1923 Coolbrith moved back to California and, between then and her death in 1928, journeyed each month to the St. Francis
Hotel to read poetry, discuss literature, and listen to lectures. The Circle continued after Coolbrith's death largely through
the efforts of Ina Peterson Cooke and Ina Cook Craig, her niece and grandniece respectively.
Ina Coolbrith, J. D. Rhodehamel and R. F. Wood. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young Univ. Press, 1973.
Scope and Content
The Ina Coolbrith Circle collection contains correspondence, announcements, newsletters, legal papers, financial statements
and newspaper clippings concerning the Circle, its members and activities between 1921 and 1969.
Added Entries
-
Bland, Henry Meade, 1863-1931
-
Coolbrith, Ina Donna, 1841-1928
- Literature - Competitions
- Literature - Addresses, essays, lectures
-
McGroarty, John Steven, 1862-1944
-
Norris, Gordon W., 1907-1961
- Poetry - Addresses, essays, lectures
- Poets -- San Francisco
- Poets -- California
- Women Authors -- California
- Women in California
Material Transferred
Six photographs, three of Ina Coolbrith's grave, one of Anne Monroe, one of Ina Coolbrith Circle members in 1955, and one
showing the Circle conferring the 1955 poetry contest award, have been transferred to California Historical Society photograph
collection.
Box 1, Folder 1
History of the Ina Coolbrith Circle
Folder 2
A Brief Biography of Ina Coolbrith by Ina Craig
Folder 3
Ina Coolbrith Circle Correspondence, 1921-1959
Folder 4
Ina Coolbrith Circle Correspondence, 1960-1969
Folder 6
Newspaper clippings, articles
Othertype Binder
Poem, July Fourth, 1895 by Ina Coolbrith (handwritten)
Photograph, document in Spanish concerning Monterey, California, 1830-1831
Box 2, Folder 7
Ina Coolbrith Circle announcements, minutes, newsletters, and contests, 1927-1952
Folder 8
Ina Coolbrith Circle announcements, minutes, newsletters, and contests, 1953-1957
Folder 9
Ina Coolbrith Circle announcements, minutes, newsletters, and contests, 1958-1959
Folder 10
Ina Coolbrith Circle announcements, minutes, newsletters, and contests, 1960-1969, nd
Folder 11
Ina Coolbrith Circle legal papers, constitutions
Folder 12
Ina Coolbrith Circle membership, 1930-1960
Folder 13
Ina Coolbrith Circle financial reports, 1942-1962
Box 3, Volume Vol 1
Ina Coolbrith Circle financial ledger, 1932-1951
Volume Vol 2
Ina Coolbrith Circle Library ledger
Volume Vol 3
Ina Coolbrith Circle meeting registrar, 1943-1944
Volume Vol 4
Ina Coolbrith Circle meeting registrar, 1950-1958
Volume Vol 5
Scrapbook with Ina Coolbrith Circle minutes, records, newspaper clippings, 1941-1944
Othertype Tape
Record of program from Southern California praising Ina Coolbrith, 1954 or 1955