Paugh, Minnie Ellen, 1919-2003

Minnie Ellen Paugh was born in Virginia City, Montana, on April 7, 1919, the daughter of George and June (Buhite) Paugh. She grew up on the family ranch and then graduated from Ennis High School in 1937. She graduated from the University of Montana in 1941. She received a Master's degree in Education from the University in 1952 and a Library Science degree from the University of Denver in 1961. Between getting her several degrees she taught school in many communities around the state. Shortly after receiving her Library degree she was hired by the Montana State University Library. She created the Special Collections department at the library. She received several awards for her service. After retiring she worked as a volunteer at the Museum of the Rockies. Their history room is named for her family. She died March 23, 2003.

From the description of Minnie Ellen Paugh manuscript, 1976. (Montana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 706833978

Minnie Ellen Paugh was born in Virginia City, Montana on April 7, 1919 and grew up on the family ranch at Jack Creek. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Montana in Missoula, a Master's of Education degree from the University of Montana, a Master's in Library Science from the University of Denver. Paugh first worked as a school teacher in various eastern and northern Montana communities and, in 1961, joined the faculty of Montana State College (later Montana State University) in Bozeman as a reference librarian and instructor. The bulk of her time at MSU she was assigned to the Special Collections Department at Rene Library, an area she actively built to preserve collections about Montana, Yellowstone National Park, agricultural history, and Montana Native Americans. During the course of her career, Paugh interviewed many old time residents of Madison County and periodically borrowed original documents from them to photocopy. In some cases, these copied materials were given accession numbers and added to the holdings of the Special Collections department, but she kept others in her personal research files. In 1974, Paugh was granted an eight month sabbatical to research and write a history of the Madison Valley and, while doing so, used many of the photocopies and interviews she had previously collected. The manuscript history she produced was never published. Following her retirement, Paugh was awarded the rank of associate professor emeritus of library science by the Board of Regents of Higher Education for her many contributions. Paugh also received the Blue and Gold Award for bringing national distinction and dedicated service to Montana State University, and she died in Billings, Montana on March 20, 2003.

From the guide to the Minnie Paugh Madison Valley Research Papers, 1964-1975, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)

Minnie Ellen Paugh was born in Virginia City, Montana on April 7, 1919 and in 1961, joined the faculty of Montana State College (later Montana State University) in Bozeman as a reference librarian and instructor. During the bulk of her time at MSU she was assigned to the Special Collections Department at Rene Library, an area she actively built to preserve collections about Montana, Yellowstone National Park, agricultural history, and Montana Native Americans. When first starting out as a Special Collections Librarian, Paugh toured the state to interview many old time residents and solicit materials to build the research collections. These interviews were amateurishly done, often documented by no more than a brief synopsis of the conversation to help document the loan of additional materials such as photographs and documents for reproduction and return to the interview subjects. Again, most of the copy photographic work was amateurishly done and of questionable quality. Occasionally Paugh would take the time to transcribe, with an varying degree of accuracy, the entire conversation, but her inexperience with recording equipment, and a practice of placing more than one subject on any given tape, complicated the effort. She continued her interviews well into the 1980s, and used some of her material in the composition of an unpublished history of Madison County, Montana during the mid 1970s. The Madison County interviews which were specifically conducted for Paugh's research have been placed with her work on that project in Collection 2051, and the remaining interviews, which range over a wide variety of topics, have been gathered in this collection. Following her retirement, Paugh was awarded the rank of associate professor emeritus of library science by the Board of Regents of Higher Education for her many contributions. Paugh also received the Blue and Gold Award for bringing national distinction and dedicated service to Montana State University, and she died in Billings, Montana on March 20, 2003.

From the guide to the Minnie Paugh Oral History Collection, 1964-1975, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)