Grace Lee Nute Collection. Papers, Photographs and Recordings

Grace Lee Nute was born in North Conway, New Hampshire on October 13, 1895. She received her B.A. from Smith College in 1917, and her M.A. (1918) and Ph.D. (1921) at Radcliffe College, where she studied under Frederick Jackson Turner. In 1921 she began a long association with the Minnesota Historical Society. She was Curator of Manuscripts from 1921 to 1946, when she became a research associate for the Society, a position she held until 1958. She was also associated with Hamline University from 1927 to 1960 as a professor of Minnesota history, with Macalester College form 1956 to 1959 as a lecturer, and was a lecturer at the University of Minnesota from 1939 to 1940. During the 1960's, Dr. Nute was Director of the James J. Hill Papers Project at the James J. Hill Reference Library in St. Paul from 1960 to 1966, and archivist for the Louis W. and Maud Hill Family Foundation during 1966-1968. The author of many books and articles dealing with the fur trade and exploration in North America and various aspects of Minnesota history, Dr. Nute's major publications include: The Voyageur (1913), Voyageurs Highway (1941), Ceasers of the Wilderness (1943), Lake Superior (1944), and Rainy River Country (1950). She held offices in various historical societies, was a member of many other organizations, and was a Guggenheim Fellow in Europe in 1934-1935. She is now retired and has been living in California since 1979.

Biographies on Dr. Nute can be found in the Directory of American Scholars (1969), and Who's Who in Minnesota (1958).