Murphy, Mary, 1953-

Born in 1953, Mary Murphy received her B.A. from University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1977 and her M.A. and PhD from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1983 and 1990 respectively. She joined the Montana State University's Department of History and Philosophy in 1990.

Murphy's most recent book, Hope in Hard Times: New Deal Photographs of Montana, 1936-1942, received the Montana Book Award for 2003. The book, drawing on more than 140 Farm Security Administration photographs, looks at Montana during the Great Depression. Murphy also wrote, Mining Cultures: Men, Women, and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41, published in 1997. She co-edited Montana Legacy: Essays on History, People, and Place, published in 2002, as well as dozens of book chapters, peer-reviewed articles and book reviews. She has lectured across the country on Western mining history, women in the West and history of the Great Depression. She has served as historical advisor on numerous films and museum exhibits.

Murphy teaches courses in American history, women in the West, the American West, social and cultural history and a variety of upper-level seminars at Montana State University in Bozeman.

From the guide to the Mary Murphy's Butte oral history project, 1980-1981, (University of Montana-Missoula Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections)