Helen Knubel
{{Short description|American archivist (1901–1992)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Helen Knubel
| image = HelenKnubel.jpg
| alt = A photograph of a middle-aged white woman with short dark hair. She is wearing pearls.
| caption = Helen Knubel, from a 1958 publication
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = July 10, 1901
| birth_place = New York City, US
| death_date = July 23, 1992
| death_place = Bronxville, New York, US
| occupation = Archivist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| parents = Frederick Hermann Knubel
| relatives =
}}
Helen M. Knubel (July 10, 1901 – July 23, 1992) was an American archivist for the National Lutheran Council from 1954 to 1971.
Early life
Helen M. Knubel was born in New York City, the daughter of Frederick Hermann Knubel and Christine A. Ritscher Knubel.{{Cite news|last=Daniels|first=Lee A.|date=1992-07-25|title=Helen Knubel, 91; Organized Archives Of Lutheran Church|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/07/25/nyregion/helen-knubel-91-organized-archives-of-lutheran-church.html|access-date=2020-07-16|issn=0362-4331}} Her father was president of the United Lutheran Church in America from 1918 to 1944. Her brother, Frederick R. Knubel, was head of the United Lutheran Synod of New York and New England.{{Cite news|date=October 24, 1957|title=Rev. Dr. Frederick R. Knubel Dies at 60; President of United Lutheran Synod Here|page=33|work=The New York Times|via=ProQuest}}
Knubel survived polio as a teenager,{{Cite news|date=August 28, 1916|title=Recovers from Dread Disease|page=1|work=Gettysburg Times|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/science-clipping-aug-28-1916-1864938/|access-date=July 16, 2020|via=NewspaperArchive.com}} and used a wheelchair. She attended The New School for Social Research, the Biblical Seminary of New York, and trained as a librarian at Columbia University.
Career
Knubel worked as an archivist for the National Lutheran Council from 1954 to 1971,{{Cite journal|last=Swain|first=Ellen D.|date=March 1999|title=Documenting Lutherans' Response to World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ROj75zZUsRkC&q=Helen+Knubel&pg=RA15-PA15|journal=Annotation: The Newsletter of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission|volume=27|pages=15–16}}{{Cite news|date=1959-08-22|title=Lutherans Show Gains|pages=9|work=The Windsor Star|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/55504133/lutherans-show-gains/|access-date=2020-07-17|via=Newspapers.com}} and "was considered the foremost archivist of the history of the Lutheran Church in North America," noted her obituary in The New York Times. She was founder and director of the Oral History of Cooperative Lutheranism in America project. She was the author of An Introductory Guide to Lutheran Archives (1981), and The Oral History Collection of the Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism (1984 and 1987, with Alice M. Kendrick).{{Cite book|last=Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism (Lutheran Council in the USA)|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/11916463|title=The oral history collection of the Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism, Lutheran Council in the USA, New York|date=1984|publisher=The Council|others=Kendrick, Alice M., Knubel, Helen M.|isbn=0-9609438-1-1|location=New York, NY|oclc=11916463}}{{Cite book|last1=Gassmann|first1=Günther|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLlKBAAAQBAJ&q=Helen+Knubel&pg=PA467|title=Historical Dictionary of Lutheranism|last2=Oldenburg|first2=Mark W.|date=2011-10-10|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-7482-4|pages=466, 467|language=en}} She was also editor of the annual Lutheran Church Directory for the United States and Canada.Mark Granquist, [https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58973613d1758e28994c3f96/t/5e13ae4721236a1a3b01e56a/1578348104541/A+Basic+Bibliography+on+Lutherans+in+North+America.pdf A Basic Bibliography of Lutherans in North America].
Knubel had a scholarly interest in early American book illustration. She wrote "Alexander Anderson and Early American Book Illustration" (Princeton University Library Chronicle, 1940),{{Cite journal|last=Pomeroy|first=Jane R.|date=1990|title=Alexander Anderson's Life and Engravings Before 1800, with a Checklist of Publications Drawn from his Diary|url=https://www.americanantiquarian.org/proceedings/44517733.pdf|journal=American Antiquarian Society|pages=137}} and owned fourteen of Anderson's original printing blocks.
Personal life
Helen Knubel died in 1992 in a hospital in Bronxville, New York, aged 91 years. Her grave is in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery. The Helen M. Knubel Archives of Cooperative Lutheranism are housed at the ELCA Archives in Elk Grove Village, Illinois.{{Cite web|date=June 21, 1999|title=ELCA Archives Move to New Location|url=https://www.elca.org/News-and-Events/3487|access-date=2020-07-17|website=Evangelical Lutheran Church in America|language=en}}
References
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External links
- [https://www.flickr.com/photos/elcaarchives/2538167304 A photograph taken at Lutheran Historical Conference 1964], in St. Louis, Missouri; Knubel is the only woman of the fourteen participants in this group photograph, and her wheelchair is visible; from the ELCA Archives, on Flickr.
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Category:20th-century Lutherans
Category:20th-century American women librarians
Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
Category:Columbia University School of Library Service alumni
Category:American wheelchair users
Category:New York Theological Seminary alumni
Category:The New School alumni
Category:American women archivists
Category:20th-century American librarians