Ruth Augusta Gallaher

Background

Ruth was born on September 23, 1882, in Warren, Illinois, United States; the second of seven children born to Daniel James Gallaher and Sarah (Uren) Gallaher, tenant farmers near Warren, Illinois, United States.

Education

In 1900 Ruth graduated from Warren Academy. From 1901 to 1902, she attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, United States. In 1908 she received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the State University of Iowa in Ames, Iowa, United States. When she was not attending school, she taught at schools in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Idaho.

In 1918 Ruth Augusta received a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the State University of Iowa in Ames, Iowa, United States.

Career

In 1900 Ruth began teaching school, as did her older sister Emily, while both lived at home. Gallaher is remembered as one of the most productive scholars associated with the State Historical Society of Iowa during Benjamin Shambaugh’s tenure as its director. Inasmuch as she was able to pursue a scholarly career at a time when women generally were excluded from faculty positions at Amer- ican colleges and universities, she contributed to professionalizing the practice of history in public organizations.

In 1914 Gallaher joined the State Historical Society of Iowa staff as a part-time research librarian while she worked on a doctorate at the State University of Iowa, where she also studied under Shambaugh in his capacity as chair of the Political Science Department.

In 1918, Ruth assumed the position of library associate. By that time, her parents and two brothers had joined her in Iowa City. In an arrangement typical of the times, they all lived under one roof, with the three siblings, unmarried, supporting their two aging parents. In 1930 Gallaher became associate editor of the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, and from 1945 to 1948 she edited both the Iowa Journal of History and Politics and the society’s popular history magazine, the Palimpsest. In addition to editing those publications, she contributed scores of articles on Iowa history and politics to both, and edited or collaborated on several books published by the State Historical Society of Iowa.

Also, Gallaher edited or contributed much of the text for the WPA’s Iowa, A Guide to the Hawkeye State (1938), although her work received no mention by Raymond Kresensky, the state director and compiler. Among her outreach activities, she collaborated on the production of radio programs for Iowa History Week and spoke regularly at meetings of women’s clubs and other community organizations. Gallaher was instrumental in creating the State University of Iowa Archives, and from 1931 to 1944 she held the title of university archivist, without salary but with university clerical and student assistance.

Gallaher’s major works include Legal and Political Status of Women in Iowa, 1918, also her dissertation, which is still considered a substantial early contribution to the field of women’s studies. With Bruce Mahan, she coauthored Stories of Iowa for Boys and Girls, 1929, which was widely used in Iowa schools for decades.

In 1948 Gallaher resigned from the State Historical Society of Iowa and left Iowa to accept a faculty position at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, where she taught in the Social Studies Department until 1950. In 1951 the SHSI published her research on the history of Methodism in Iowa in the Palimpsest. Sometime after 1950, Gallaher moved to California, where she died in Los Angeles at age 82.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Legal and Political Status of Women in Iowa:

    ( )

    1918
  • Legal and Political Status of Women in Iowa 2015

Membership

Ruth was an active member of the Iowa City community. She devoted considerable time to the Social Service League Board and the League of Women Voters, and during World War II sat on the Iowa City Rent Advisory Board.

• From 1925 to 1927 Gallaher served on the city council.

  City council

  1925 - 1927

• From 1927 to 1928 Gallaher chaired the Johnson County chapter of the American Red Cross.

  Johnson County chapter of the American Red Cross , United States

  1927 - 1928

Connections

Father:

Daniel James Gallaher

Mother:

Sarah (Uren) Gallaher

Sister:

Emily Gallaher

References

• The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa Iowa has been blessed with citizens of strong character who have made invaluable contributions to the state and to the nation. In the 1930s alone, such towering figures as John L. Lewis, Henry A. Wallace, and Herbert Hoover hugely influenced the nation’s affairs.
  2008