2010.02
The Library, Special Collections
Humboldt State University
One Harpst Street
Arcata, California 95521
Preliminary finding aid by Edie Butler, M.A., C.A.
2010
English
Claire Courtney
1960s-1990s
2.5 cubic feet
The collection contains notes and documents from the formative years of the Humboldt County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Humboldt County Human Rights Commission, League of Women Voters, reproductive rights organizations, and the Humboldt Bay League (precursor of the Humboldt Bay Recreation and Conservation District).
Unprocessed – available by appointment
Copyright to Claire Courtney's writings has been deeded to the Humboldt State University Library. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Special Collections Librarian.
Shortly after Claire Courtne's death in 2008 her daughter, Pamela Masterson, deeded the collection to the Archives of Northwestern California Activism of the Center for Environmental Economic Development (CEED) and on April 15, 2010, CEED deeded the collection to the Humboldt State University Library's Special Collections.
Claire Courtney was active in progressive and environmental organizations and Democratic Party politics in Humboldt County from the time she arrived in the mid 1950s until shortly before her death in 2008. A native of New York City, she and her new husband Harold Courtney, moved to the west coast where Mr. Courtney was soon employed as a forester, for the USFS in Hoopa. A few years later they moved to the Eureka area. They had four children and then divorced in the 1970s. Claire was committed to the betterment of her community.
The collection contains notes and documents from the formative years of the Humboldt County chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Humboldt County Human Rights Commission, League of Women Voters, reproductive rights organizations, and the Humboldt Bay League (precursor of the Humboldt Bay Recreation and Conservation District). Files contain information about the committees’ activities and related commissions, both local and statewide.
Six cassette tapes record a variety of events: KHSU broadcast on Headwaters, 1993 Eureka Health Forum, [Frank] Riggs-McKinleyville in 1995, and the Northcoast Board of Directors meeting in January 1997.
Files from Claire's years of service on the Board of Directors of the Northcoast Environmental Center have been donated to that organization.
Most of the items are in file folders. The folders are in the same order as they were found in the boxes from Claire's home. Some personal items relating to the children (school photographs, report card) were returned to the family at the time the collection went to CEED.
