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BELLE TURNBULL PAPERS

 Collection
Identifier: WH414

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists of Turnbull's published and unpublished works, personal papers, scrapbooks and ephemera. The papers range from 1860 to 1970.

SERIES 1 WRITINGS 1940-1968 BOX 1

Published and unpublished works comprise this series. Included are contracts, book cover designs and correspondence about the books and poems. The series contains a scrapbook of correspondence and newspaper clippings about Goldboat.

SERIES 2 PROFESSIONAL PAPERS 1923-1944 BOX 1

This series consists of papers generated by Turnbull's work as a teacher and a clerk typist.

SERIES 3 PERSONAL 1938-1965 BOX 1

Turnbull's correspondence with friends includes her original poetry as well as some of theirs. Scrapbooks of poetry and interesting quotes constitute a portion of the series.

SERIES 4 EPHEMERA 1965 BOX 1

This series consists of a ceramic Pegasus figurine representing the Le-Huff Award which Turnbull received in 1965 from the Poetry Fellowship of Colorado Springs.

SERIES 5 PHOTOGRAPHS 1860-1943 PHOTOBOX 1

This series contains photographs of Belle Turnbull, her friend, Helen Rich, and their home in Breckenridge, Colorado. Scottie dogs are featured in many photos. The series also includes photograph albums of unidentified as well as identified family and friends.

Dates

  • 1860-1970

Conditions Governing Access

The collection is open for research.

Copyright

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from material in the collection should be discussed with the appropriate librarian or archivist. Permission for publication may be given on behalf of the Denver Public Library as the owner of the physical item. It is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained by the customer. The Library does not assume any responsibility for infringement of copyright or publication rights of the manuscript held by the writer, heirs, donors, or executors. Reproduction restrictions are decided on a case-by-case basis.

Biographical / Historical

Belle Turnbull was born in Hamilton, New York on December 9, 1881. At the age of 9, her family moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado because of her father's health. Her father, George Butler Turnbull, became the principal of Colorado Springs High School.

Turnbull graduated from Vassar in 1904. She took a job teaching at Westfield High School in western New York. Then in 1909, she taught at an all-boys' school in Buffalo, New York. In 1910, Turnbull returned to Colorado Springs to teach English at Colorado Springs High School until 1936.

In 1937, Turnbull retired from teaching and moved to Frisco, Colorado with her friend, fellow poet and author, Helen Rich. Two years later, they moved to a cabin in Breckenridge, Colorado, where they remained for the rest of their lives. During World War II, Turnbull worked as a clerk typist for the War Price and Rationing Board in Breckenridge. She resigned in 1944 to devote all of her time to writing.

Turnbull started writing poetry as a child. By 1933 she had a number of poems published in the Saturday Review of Literature. In 1938, Turnbull received the Harriet Monroe Memorial Prize from Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. In 1940, she published Goldboat, a mining saga told in verse. Turnbull published a prose novel, The Far Side of the Hill, in 1953; a book of verse, Tenmile Range, in 1957; and another poetry book, Trails, in 1968.

Turnbull died in November 1970 in Denver, Colorado. Her remains were cremated. Breckenridge, Colorado, still honors her work as a poet as evidenced by an August 2007 reading of her poetry published in Belle Turnbull: Voice of the Mountains, an anthology by Karen Fischer and Robert D. McCracken.

Extent

1 Boxes

1 photo boxes

Language of Materials

English

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift, Alex Warner, 1971.

SELECTION OF RELATED MATERIAL

Helen Rich PapersWH348

PROCESSED AND ENCODED BY:

Ann Brown, November 2007

PROJECT MANAGER:

Ellen Zazzarino

Title
BELLE TURNBULL PAPERS
Date
NOVEMBER 2007
Language of description
English
Script of description
Code for undetermined script

Repository Details

Part of the Denver Public Library, Western History and Genealogy Repository

Contact:
10 W. 14th Ave. Pkwy
Denver CO 80204 United States