A Guide to the Papers of
Gloria Griffen Cline
Collection No. NC1041

Gloria Griffen Cline

Gloria Griffen Cline Harrison was born in San Francisco in 1929, the daughter of Robert A. and Grace Gillespie Griffen. The Griffens moved to Reno, Nevada, in 1931, where Gloria attended local grammar schools and Reno High School, graduating in 1947. She enrolled at the University of Nevada, majored in history, and joined the Delta Delta Delta sorority. After graduating in 1950, she attended graduate school at the University and received her M.A. in history in 1951. After a break of several years she applied and was accepted into the Ph.D. program in history at the University of California, Berkeley. She received her degree in 1958.

Gloria was married twice: to Dean Forbes Cline in 1957 (divorced in 1963) and to John Harrison in 1966. Harrison was an citizen of Ireland, and the Harrisons made their residence there. They were, however, in the process of moving permanently to the United States when Gloria died on April 2, 1973, as a result of a fall.

After receiving her Ph.D., Dr. Cline taught at several colleges and universities, including Nevada Southern University (which became the University of Nevada, Las Vegas), Indiana University, and the University of Nevada, Reno. In 1960, she took a permanent position in the history department at Sacramento State College (SSC), where she became the first woman to win the college's Annual Faculty Research Award in 1965. Gloria resigned her Associate Professor of History position at SSC in 1966 to move to Ireland with her new husband. In England she was a lecturer at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge University.

Dr. Cline first became interested in early European exploration of the Great Basin of the western United States when, as a child, she accompanied her parents on summer trips to Montana. Her M.A. thesis was titled "Early Exploration, Routes, and Trails in Nevada." She expanded that theme for her Ph.D. dissertation to include a wider geographic region. The title of her dissertation was "A History of Exploration in the Great Basin." During this period she utilized manuscript repositories extensively in both the U.S. and Canada. Eventually she gained access to the archives of the Hudson's Bay Company and that research formed the basis of a number of articles for scholarly journals and for two books. Her first book, published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1963, was entitled Exploring the Great Basin, and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Her second book was completed just before her death and published posthumously, in 1973, by the University of Oklahoma Press as Peter Skene Ogden and the Hudson's Bay Company. Dr. Cline was a member of several honor societies, the Western Writers Association, and Western History Society Silver Key, and was listed in a number of Who's Who books, the Directory of International Biography, Contemporary Authors, and Directory of American Scholars.

Gloria was an only child and had no children by either of her marriages. At the time of her death, her father was very ill with cancer. Having no other close heirs, Mr. and Mrs. Griffen decided to endow the reading room which is part of the Special Collections Department of the Library at the University of Nevada, Reno. After Mr. Griffen's death in 1974, Mrs. Griffen donated the family's extensive collection of western Americana books and Native American artifacts to the Department, as well as this collection of Gloria Griffen Cline Papers. Mrs. Griffen died in 1983, at which time the Robert A. and Grace Griffen papers were also donated to the Special Collections Department. They form manuscript collection 84-08.

The papers of Gloria Griffen Cline Harrison were donated to the Special Collections Department by her parents, Grace and Robert A. Griffen, in 1974. The collection dates from 1929-1984 and consists of six cubic feet of records and photographs. There are no restrictions on use of the collection.

The Cline papers are divided into two series: Series One, personal papers; and Series Two, academic studies and professional career papers. Series One is the smaller of the two and includes some diaries, 1940-1954; a small amount of personal correspondence; school and university records (including Reno High School Yearbooks); legal records; address, baby, wedding, and funeral books; travel documents; photographs; and scrapbooks.

Series Two contains Dr. Cline's professional correspondence, M.A. thesis, Ph.D. dissertation, Faculty Research Lecture from Sacramento State College, manuscript and typescript drafts of her two books and numerous articles, reviews written about her works, her reviews of scholarly works of other historians, photos and maps for her books, research notes, bibliography cards, lecture notes, and course syllabuses used in her college class lectures.

Processed by: Susan Searcy
Date: February 21, 1992


The papers of Gloria Griffen Cline have been organized into the following series:

Series 1 Personal papers

Series 2 Academic studies and professional career papersSeries 1


Series 1 Personal Papers. 1929-1974. 1.25 cu. ft.

This series includes diaries, 1940-1954; a small amount of personal correspondence; school and university records (including Reno High School yearbooks); legal records; address, baby, wedding, and funeral books; travel documents; photographs, and scrapbooks. It is conjectured by the manuscript arranger that these papers had been stored by the Griffens in Reno after Dr. Cline's marriage to John Harrison, as there is very little material which relates to the period after 1966 when she moved to Ireland. It is also speculated that Mrs. Griffen sorted through the collection and removed some materials (probably correspondence, financial records, and/or diaries) before donating these papers to the Special Collections Department. The overall arrangement of this series is chronological.


BOX 1

1/1-2 - Diaries. 1940-1954.
1/3 - Personal correspondence. 1953-1972.
1/4 - Invitations.
1/5-7 - Legal papers.
1/8 - Sale of Harrison home in Ireland. 1973.
1/9 - Acknowledgements of donations to the UNR Library in memory of Cline.
1/10 - Baby book. 1929-1931.
1/11-12 - Address books.
1/13 - Report cards, grammar school, college.
1/14 - UNR and UC Berkeley graduation programs. 1950, 1951, 1958.
1/15 - UC Berkeley transcripts.
1/16 - Diplomas, grammar school-university.
1/17 - Reno High School newspaper, "Red and Blue." 1945, 1972.BOX 1
1/18-19 - Reno High School yearbooks, "Re-Wa-Ne." 1946, 1947.
1/20 - Senior year (college) tour, graduation UNR.

 

BOX 2

1/21-22 - Wedding (marriage to Dean Forbes Cline). 1957.
1/23 - Memorial (funeral) book. 1973.
1/24 - Miscellaneous.
1/25 - Certificates and awards.
1/26 - Passports, travel documents.
1/27 - Dean Cline certificate of discharge as merchant seaman. 1959.
1/28 - Vacation postcards.
1/29 - Girl Scouts/Brownie Scouts scrapbook. 1940-1944.
1/30-31 - Clippings.
1/32 - Pencil holder set, with case.


Series 2 Academic studies and professional career papers. 1951-1973. 4.75 cu. ft.

Series Two includes materials related to Dr. Cline's academic studies, beginning from her graduate work forward, and includes her professional correspondence, M.A. thesis, Ph.D. dissertation, Faculty Research Lecture from Sacramento State College, manuscript and typescript drafts of her two books and numerous articles, reviews of her works, her reviews of scholarly works by other historians, photos and maps for her books, research notes, bibliography cards, lecture notes, and course syllabuses used in her college class lectures. Several drafts of Cline's books, Exploring the Great Basin and Peter Skene Ogden and the Hudson's Bay Company form a portion of this series, but it was not possible during a casual perusal to discern which drafts were initial manuscripts and which were final products as submitted to the publisher.

This series also includes Dr. Cline's resumes and research grant proposals which add details about the course of her professional career. The resumes are in letter form, composed when Dr. Cline was writing colleges and universities in California and Nevada to inquire about possible teaching positions. These letters mention her future plans to move permanently from Ireland to the United States in the summer of 1973.

The first part of this series includes correspondence, resumes, grant proposals, and conference programs and papers. The second portion of Series Two is arranged in more or less chronological order and consists of Dr. Cline's writings and accompanying research notes, bibliography cards, and book reviews. A series of articles for professional journals and in anthologies appears at the end of this section. The last part of the series contains course syllabuses and exams used by Dr. Cline to teach her western history courses at Sacramento State College.


BOX 2

2/1-4 - Professional correspondence, including letters from Cline's editors at the University of Oklahoma Press and Knopf, 1961-1963; and the Hudson's Bay Company librarian.
2/5-6 - Resumes, applications for teaching positions. 1964; 1972.BOX 2
1/7 - Research grant proposals. n.d.
1/8-9 - Conference programs and papers.
1/10 - M.A. thesis, "Early Exploration, Routes, and Trails in Nevada. 1951.
1/11 - Ph.D. dissertation, "A History of Exploration in the Great Basin." 1958.
1/12 - Sacramento State College Faculty Research Lecture, "The Hudson's Bay Company as a Source for North American Research." 1965.
1/13-14 - Exploring the Great Basin typescript.


BOX 3

1/15-16 - Exploring the Great Basin typescript, con't.
1/17-18 - Book reviews: Exploring the Great Basin
1/19-20 - Research notes: Exploring the Great Basin. See also Boxes 7-8 for note cards, bibliography cards. See Boxes 9-10 for additional research and bibliography cards. (It is unclear which of Cline's two books these cards pertain to.)
1/21-24 - Notebook of research notes on the fur trade.
1/25-27 - Peter Skene Ogden and the Hudson's Bay Company typescript (complete).
1/28-34 Ogden typescripts, handwritten drafts (some not complete).


BOX 4

1/35-43 - Odgen typescripts.
1/44 - Photos and pictures used to illustrate Ogden biography.
1/45 - Maps used to illustrate Ogden biography. Oversize maps placed in a manuscript mapcase drawer.BOX 4
1/46 - Book reviews: Peter Skene Ogden and the Hudson's Bay Company.
1/47-49 - Research notes, Ogden biography.


BOX 5

1/50a&b - Research notes, Ogden biography.
1/51 - Research notes about Anson Call.
1/52 - Published articles by others about Ogden. "Peter Skene Ogden's Explorations in the Great Salt Lake Region," by David E. Miller; obituary of Jacques Rousseau; "The Honorable Hudson [sic] Bay Company," from Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. LIX, no. 349; "H.M.S. America on the North Pacific Coast," by Barry M. Gough, in Oregon Historical Quarterly, December 1969; "Chronological List of Expeditions and Historical Events in Northern Canada," by Alan Cooke and Clive Holland, in The Polar Record, Vol. 15, no. 95, 1970; "The Drift of the Whaler Viewforth in Davis Strait, 1835-1836, from William Elder's Journal," By Alan Cooke and W. Gillies Ross, in The Polar Record, Vol. 14, no. 92, 1969; and "A Cheyenne Obstacle Myth," in Journal of American Folk-Lore, submitted by George Bird Grinnell, n.d.
2/53 - Research notes, Hudson's Bay Company in California and on the Pacific Coast.
2/54-56 - Research notes, Ogden biography.
2/57-58 - Notes on Pugent Sound Agricultural Company.
2/59 - "The San Buenaventura, Mythical River of the West" by C. Gregory Crampton and Gloria G. Griffen. Pacific Historical Review, Vol XXV, no. 2, May 1956.
2/60-62 - "Buenaventura River, Waterway to Cathay." Typescript.
2/63 - "David Meriwether," by Cline. Mountain Men, n.d.
2/64 - "Geographic Misconceptions of the Great Basin, 1776-1844," by Cline.BOX 5
2/65 - "Hudson's Bay Company Archives," by Cline.
2/66 - "Hudson's Bay Company as a Source for North American Research," by Cline.
2/67 - "Hudson's Bay Company's Explorers View of the Indian and the Mexican," by Cline.
2/68 - "Indian-Caucasian Relations in the Great Basin, 1825-1844," by Cline.
2/69 - Article on Jacob Primer Leese by Cline.
2/70 - "Jedediah Smith: Leading Contender in the Anglo-American Fur Rivalry," by Cline.
2/71 - "Job Francis Dye," by Cline.
2/72 - "Life in Ireland," by Cline.
2/73 - "Peter Skene Ogden, Northern Nevada's First Explorer," by Cline.
2/74 - "Peter Skene Ogden's Discovery of the Humboldt River," by Cline.
2/75 - "Peter Skene Ogden's Nevada Exploration," by Cline. Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. III, no. 3, July-Sept. 1968.
2/76 - Speech for the historical marker dedication at the Virginia and Truckee Railroad depot, Virginia City.
2/77 - "William Kittson," by Cline. In Mountain Men, n.d.
2/78 - Book reviews written by Cline.
2/79 - Copies of articles by others: "Marcus Whitman, M.D., Pioneer and Martyr," by [Clifford Merrill Drury]. ["McLoughlin's Fort Vancouver Letters."] ["Hudson's Bay Company and the Whitman Massacre,"] in History of Oregon, n.d.
2/80 - "Fur Brigade to the Bonaventura. John Works' California Expedition, 1832-1833 for the Hudson's Bay Company," by Alice Bay Maloney. California Historical Society, 1945.BOX 5
2/81 - Nevada History lecture notes.
2/82 - California History lecture notes.
2/83 - American West course syllabi of L.H. Creer and Oscar Osburn Winthur.


BOX 6

2/84 - American Civilization lecture notes.
2/85 - History 181 lecture outline, exams.
2/86 - History 101 lecture notes.
2/87 - Frontier History lecture notes.
2/88 - History 161, Latin American History lecture notes.
2/89 - History 171, American Colonial History lecture notes.
2/90 - Old examinations.


BOX 7

Index cards for index to Exploring the Great Basin.


BOX 8

Bibliography cards and research note cards for Exploring the Great Basin.


BOXES 9-10.

Bibliography cards (It is unclear for which of Cline's books these were compiled.)