Iowa Women's Archives
University of Iowa Libraries
Iowa City, Iowa

THELMA PETERSEN (1909- )

PAPERS, 1926-2003
2.5 linear feet

Collection Overview

Biography

Thelma Beatrice Petersen, homemaker, was born to Kristina “Katie” Erickson Petersen and Hans Simondsen Petersen in 1909 and grew up on a western Iowa farm. She was the sixth of eight children. Petersen attended Donway Country School, Kirkman High School, and the homemaker’s program at Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University) in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Thelma Petersen kept house for her parents and brother, Archie Petersen, in Kirkman, Iowa. She also cared for extended family members. Petersen, an avid gardener, was a 4-H club leader and an active member in her church.

Scope and Content Note

The Thelma Petersen papers date from 1926 to 2003 and measure 2.5 linear feet. The bulk of the collection consists of her diaries which date from 1949 to 1998, although the years of 1951 to 1954 are missing. The correspondence includes letters from friends and family members written to Thelma Petersen when she attended Iowa State Agricultural College in Ames, Iowa. Thelma Petersen’s diary entries focus on her daily life: cooking, gardening, washing, and weather. In the front and back of most of the diaries Petersen records information about a variety of topics including visitors, money she tithed to her church, and her hair permanents. The diaries are mainly written in spiral notebooks and some contain calendars and clippings folded in the back of the notebook.

The Thelma Petersen papers also include the diaries of her mother Katie, who was born in 1874 in Coon Valley, Wisconsin, and died in 1972 in Shelby County, Iowa. Katie Petersen’s diaries include details of her daily life as a wife and mother on an Iowa farm.

Four photographs of family members complete the collection: a 1946 portrait of Katie and Hans Petersen on their 50 th wedding anniversary, photos of Thelma and Archie Petersen in 1980, and an informal portrait of Thelma and her seven siblings in 1987.

Box List

Box 1

Biographical information, 2003 Account book, 1952-1962 Correspondence, 1926-1930 (3 folders) Diaries

Thelma Petersen, 1949-1960 (3 folders)

Box 2

Thelma Petersen, 1961-1972 (5 folders)

Box 3

Thelma Petersen, 1973-1979 (4 folders)

Box 4

Thelma Petersen, 1981-1987 (3 folders)

Box 5

Thelma Petersen, 1988-1995 (3 folders)

Box 6

Thelma Petersen, 1996-1998 Kristina “Katie” Petersen (mother), 1949-1964 (2 folders)

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Page created September 2006.