Overview
Account of Evelyn Wendt's journey to Alaska.
Dates
- Creation: 1947
- Creation: Undated
Language of Materials
Materials in English.
Access Restrictions:
Access. Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the papers created by Evelyn Wendt as well as copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
1 folderCollection includes Evelyn Wendt's account of her family's journey to Alaska. This typewritten journal follows the Wendt family along the Alcan Highway during the Spring of 1947. Wendt documents their entire trip, describing in detail the weather; the road conditions; the towns they visit along the way; issues with their various vehicles; and finally their arrival in Palmer, Alaska. This collection also includes lists of provisions and gear, a letter about possibly publishing a series of articles, and copyright forms from the Library of Congress.
BIOGRAPHY
Evelyn Mae (Shoe) Wendt was born on February 26, 1915, to Harry Shoe and Adelle (Davis) Shoe in Saginaw, Michigan. She married Robert "Bob" Wendt on March 26, 1937; the marriage ended in divorce in 1959. The Wendts had three children: Carol, Elizabeth, and Roger. Bob and Evelyn Wendt operated a radio repair shop in Gaylord, Michigan. In March 1947, the Wendt family drove from Saginaw, Michigan to Palmer, Alaska, to join the Matanuska Valley Colony, which was an agricultural colony sponsored by the Federal Emergency Relief Administration to promote settlement and to investigate sustainable crops in the region. Their journey, which took two months, took them along the Alcan Highway. They brought with them a trailer house, a generator, a new truck, a jeep, and enough canned foods to last them a year. Evelyn Wendt found employment at the Matanuska Valley Farmers' Cooperating Association and the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station. In 1955, the Wendt family left Alaska and moved to Montana. Evelyn Wendt married Oliver Kimball on May 28, 1960.
Evelyn Wendt Kimball died on May 12, 2006, in Grand Rapids, Montana.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession number: 2004-M8
The Papers of Evelyn Wendt were acquired by the Schlesinger Library from Dan Casavant Rare Books in 2004.
Processing Information
Processed: April 2004
By: Anne Engelhart
Updated and additional description added: January 2021
By: Cat Lea Holbrook
The Schlesinger Library attempts to provide a basic level of preservation and access for all collections, and does more extensive processing of higher priority collections as time and resources permit. Finding aids may be updated periodically to account for new acquisitions to the collection and/or revisions in arrangement and description.
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- Sponsor
- Processing of this collection was made possible by the Zetlin Sisters Fund and the Jane Rainie Opel '50 Fund.
- EAD ID
- sch01886
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.