Title:

Nora M. Lynch papers, 1878-2009 (bulk 1926-2002)

Creator/Contributor:

Lynch, Nora M., creator

Creator/Contributor:

Lynch, Virginia Witt Morse.

Creator/Contributor:

Lynch, Harold James.

Creator/Contributor:

McMurdo, Nora.

Creator/Contributor:

Lynch, Mary Miller.

Creator/Contributor:

Lynch, Helen Abbie.

Creator/Contributor:

Lynch, Alice Mary Kennedy.

This collection provides a rich intergenerational account of women's history in California. The memoirs of Nora Lynch, the central figure in the collection, provide engaging accounts of ranch life near Paso Robles in the 1930s and of San Jose in the 1940s. Her extensive involvement with the Girl Scouts in California and Arizona from the 1940s to the 1960s enables an inside look at the workings of that organization, as well as that of the Canadian Girl Guides, whom she visited in 1958 on an official trip documented in diaries and correspondence. Her account of working for Varian Associates in the 1970s and 1980s gives insight into the early implementation of equal-opportunity employment policies. Nora's mother, Virginia Witt Morse Lynch, came to California ranch life through marriage after a wealthy city childhood in the South, and she details her experience surviving on a ranch through the Depression in both voluminous correspondence to her mother and diaries spanning more than a decade. The collection also contains substantive materials relating to Virginia Lynch's mother, Nora Ellis Hughes Morse Toensfeld McMurdo, who was instrumental in the development of cultural life in San Jose, as well as autobiographical texts by Nora Lynch's grandmother Mary Miller Lynch, her aunt Helen Lynch, her father Harold Lynch, and her great-grandmother Alice Mary Kennedy Lynch (photocopy of translation; originals also in Bancroft). In addition, the collection includes materials of interest to disability studies concerning Virginia Lynch's stepsister, Madeline McMurdo, who was diagnosed with Down's syndrome and cared for by the McMurdo-Lynch families. The collection also contains Nora Lynch's genealogical research into the Lynch, Kennedy, and Hughes families.

Date:

1926 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca

Lynch, Nora M -- Archives

Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

Varian Associates.

Paso Robles (Calif.) -- History

Hearst-San Simeon State Historical Monument (Calif.) -- History

San Jose (Calif.) -- History

Palo Alto (Calif.) -- History

Salinas (Calif.) -- History

San Luis Obispo County (Calif.) -- History

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.

Collection processed at folder level in 2009.

Nora M. Lynch papers, BANC MSS 2009/104, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

In English.

Related collection: Alice Mary Kennedy Lynch diary (BANC MSS C-F 13).

Related collection: Memoirs of Alice Kennedy Lynch (BANC MSS 94/110 c).

Photographs transferred to the Pictorial Collections of The Bancroft Library (BANC PIC 2009.012).

Audiovisual materials transferred to the A/V Collections of The Bancroft Library.

Nora May Lynch was born November 13, 1926. A fourth-generation Californian, she grew up on a farm in San Luis Obispo County during the Depression. As an adult, she worked extensively with the Girl Scouts on both the local and national levels. In 1970, she began working for Varian Associates, where she was instrumental in implementing new policies promoting workforce diversity and supporting employees with disabilities. After her retirement in 1989, she served as a volunteer ranger at Shoreline Park in Mountain View. Lynch died on April 2, 2008.

Type:

Scrapbooks.

print

2 cartons, 1 box (2.7 linear feet)

English

Origin:

California

COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for use.