Ruth Foster Collection

TITLE: Ruth Foster Collection

DATE RANGE:   1920s-1970s

CALL NUMBER: Y-MS4

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:  5 linear feet (10 boxes)

PROVENANCE:  Unknown. 

COPYRIGHT: The Yuma County Library District owns the copyright to this collection 

RESTRICTIONS: This collection is unrestricted.   

CREDIT LINE: Ruth Foster CollectionY-MS4, Yuma County Library District

PROCESSED BY:  Linda Whitaker, November 2013 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE:    

“In the eyes of the world, I am probably called a loner because my family wants no part of living in the hot spot of Yuma…”  So writes Ruth Foster in a brief biographical statement written after a 33-year career teaching English at Yuma High School. She was born September 3, 1903 in Denver, Colorado – the eldest child of Isaiah W. Foster and Cora E. Mosteller.  She graduated from Colorado State Teachers’ College in 1927 and came to Arizona in 1928 where she taught in the Duncan and Marana high schools before coming to Yuma. Ruth received a master’s degree from the University of Arizona in 1937. She was a highly regarded educator who maintained strong connections to leaders in education state and nationwide.  One of her hobbies was writing which is reflected in her prolific correspondence.

Ruth was active in numerous professional organizations and civic clubs which included Arizona Education Association, American Association of University Women, Delta Kappa Gamma, Yuma Business and Professional Women’s Club, and Yuma Chapter of the United Nations Association. She was a life-long learner whose post retirement interests included politics, community service, and public policy issues such as housing for the elderly, women’s rights and health insurance. She was a feminist long before the word became a cliché. Ruth ran unsuccessfully for the Arizona House of Representatives in 1970 and attended the International Women’s Year conference in Mexico City in 1971which she described as a “priceless experience.”  In 1974, twenty organizations came together for “Ruth Foster Day” honoring her for many years of community service. She died November 4, 1975 in Yuma. Her ashes are buried in Crawford, Colorado. 

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE:   

This collection is remarkable for documenting the professional career and the community service life of an unmarried woman that begins in the late 1920s and ends with the women’s rights movement. In a diary entry, Ruth Foster mentions cleaning out her early files to make room for more recent works in progress. This may explain why the bulk of her correspondence dates from the 1960s despite lifelong friendships and close ties to her brother and sister-in-law.  Because Ruth served in many professional and community leadership roles, the organizational work, community activism, and issue-based research are richly detailed. Original order is unknown.

This collection is arranged in four series and chronologically within. Series I: Personal (biographical material); Series II: Correspondence (general, personal, professional) Series III:  Organizations; Series IV: Writings.     

CONTAINER LIST: