Western State College Special Collections
Lois Borland Collection
Lois Borland (1877-1967) came to the Colorado State Normal School, Gunnison, Colorado in 1914 as the school’s first English professor. She retired in 1942 from Western State College of Colorado after a long career that included many interests. In addition to literature, she developed an interest in local history and was probably the first person in the area to appreciate the value of saving and preserving historical documents. She also was involved in dramatic productions at the college.
Early in her career, Professor Borland became interested in the history of the Gunnison area. Under her guidance, the English composition classes published Historical Sketches of Early Gunnison (1916 Bulletin of Colorado State Normal School), the first student research publication.
Professor Borland began acquiring materials documenting the history of the area. She also generated many of her own notes on the Gunnison area, perhaps with the hope of publishing her own history of Gunnison one day.
The Lois Borland Collection includes her personal papers and correspondence, articles from local newspapers pertaining to the history of the area, English class short stories, one-act plays written by students, letters from well-known authors, and records of local organizations and agencies. These organizations and agencies include the Gunnison National Forest, American Legion, and Gunnison School District.
The collection is divided into 10 series. An overview of the collection provides a biography of Lois Borland and brief description of each series. Some series have finding aids. The overview and finding aids are formatted in Adobe Acrobat PDF.
Descriptions of Collection and Series
Lois Borland Collection (Finding Aid)- Series 1: Gunnison History (Series Finding Aid)
- Series 2: Aberdeen Quarry Records (Series Finding Aid)
- Series 3: Gunnison National Forest Records (Series Finding Aid)
- Series 4: Miscellaneous Materials (unprocessed)
- Series 5: American Legion Records (Series Finding Aid)
- Series 6: Western State College One-Act Plays (Series Finding Aid)
- Series 7: Western State College Records (Series Finding Aid)
- Series 8: Gunnison School District Records (unprocessed)
- Series 9: Scrapbooks (Series Finding Aid)
- Series 10: Personal Papers (Series Finding Aid)
Updated November 2008
Send Comments to Nancy Gauss, ngauss@western.edu
