Alma Boge Papers, 1944-2015

Donated by Alma Rosine Boge, June, 2015.

The Alma Boge Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The Alma Boge Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Alma Boge Papers, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Garrett Boge, 2017.

Twentieth-century woman, mother, wife; active in church and community in Washington state, Arizona, and Illinois.

Alma Rosine (Weitkamp) Boge, (1926-), a child of the Depression, married James Arnold (Jim) Boge, her high school sweet heart and a returning WWII US Navy man in 1947. From 1948 to 1956 she bore, and together they raised five children at the height of America’s Baby Boom. They led active lives in their hometown of Spokane WA until 1968 when they transplanted their family to Park Ridge, IL, where, after raising her children, she worked as a special education assistant with Maine East High School, and later as an audiology testing technician. Following their professional retirements in 1987, on Alma’s initiative, they relocated back to the Pacific Northwest to open a Bed & Breakfast in Gig Harbor, WA. In 2000 they retired from this second vocation, splitting their time between Gig Harbor and Scottsdale, Arizona. In 2012, again on Alma’s initiative, they sold both homes and moved into a retirement center in Barrington, IL in order to be part of a senior care community and near their family.

Appointment calendars, daily journals, photo albums and supplemental material preserved by Alma Boge, from high school onward.

Alma derived satisfaction from documenting and preserving a record of events, activities, and people. The appointment calendars (1958-1975) were a means of planning, for herself and for her growing family. The journals (1976-2015) served as a record of daily activities and a means of reference. Alma’s saving and recording extended to maintaining photo albums dating back to her high school graduation in 1944. Together these materials document a middle-class American woman’s life spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

Organized by type of material: collection summary; appointment calendars; journals; photo albums; supplemental materials. Appointment calendars, journals, and photo albums are each arranged chronologically.

• Names
  • Boge, Alma
  • Boge, Garrett A.
  • Bøge family
• Subject
  • Families – United States – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Family Papers
  • Family vacations – United States – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Gig Harbor (Wash.) – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Hotelkeepers – Washington (State) – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Lutherans – United States
  • Manuscripts, American – Illinois – Chicago
  • Mother and child – United States – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Park Ridge (Ill.) – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Retirement communities – Illinois – Barrington
  • Scottsdale (Ariz.) – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Spokane (Wash.) – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Wives – Arizona– Scottsdale – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Wives – Illinois – Park Ridge – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Wives – Washington (State) – History – 20th century – Sources
  • Women
  • Women and religion