Howard, Helen Addison, 1904-1989

Helen Addison Howard was born in Missoula, Montana, in 1904. She worked as a reporter and feature writer for the Daily Missoulian from 1923 until 1929. While living in Missoula she earned her bachelor's degree from Montana State University in 1927. She later earned her master's degree at the University of Southern California in 1933. After graduation, she remained in California where she met and married Ben Overland in 1946. She held various positions while living in California, including membership in the Women's Ambulance and Defense Corps of America, 1942-1945, survey work for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1943, and clerk/typist for the Los Angeles Police Department, 1950-1951.

Howard is most recognized for her writings on Native Americans, particularly the Nez Percé, but she also wrote extensively on other aspects of the frontier west. Her manuscripts include War Chief Joseph (1941), Saga of Chief Joseph (1965), Northwest Trail Blazers (1963), American Indian Poetry (1979), and American Frontier Tales (1980). Howard also contributed to many journals throughout her career, including Washington Historical Quarterly, Writer, Frontier and Midland, Historical Bulletin, Journal of the West, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, Catholic Digest, and Real West . Howard was also a book reviewer for Journal of the West beginning in 1969, and a member of its editorial advisory board in 1978.

Howard had a love of horses and wrote in many journals relating to that topic. Her articles were published in Equestrian Trails, Arabian Horse News, Horseman, Western Horseman, and Saddle Action . She died in the summer of 1989.

From the guide to the Helen Addison Howard Papers, 1927-1988, (Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)