Helen Onson Papers, 1938-1994 (C4043)

0.65 cubic feet (14 folders, 1 oversize volume, 1 DVD)

 Finding Aid

The Helen Onson Papers contain photographs, diaries, newspaper clippings, and a scrapbook documenting Onson’s career as a basketball player in the 1930s and 1940s. Also included are clippings and correspondence related to Helen Stephens and her Olympic Co-Eds traveling basketball team, and material on the Harlem Globetrotters and its founder, Abe Saperstein. The collection also includes a DVD with an interview of Onson discussing her basketball career and friendship with Olympian Helen Stephens.

Subjects

Accessing Collections

This collection can be requested to view at State Historical Society of Missouri research centers. Appointments are strongly encouraged to ensure that requested materials are available at the time of your visit. Make an appointment using the research request form.

Language in Finding Aids

The State Historical Society of Missouri collects materials documenting all aspects of Missouri history. Some of our paper and digital collections as well as older finding aids may include harmful or outdated language and could be considered offensive. SHSMO does not censor its collections, but we endeavor to be accurate and inclusive in how we describe them.

We are committed to revising and updating our descriptive language; however, with thousands of finding aids, this is ongoing and will take time. When processing new collections, we will occasionally re-use language provided by creators and former owners of the collection because it provides important context about the materials or appears in the formal names of organizations or titles of materials in the collection. In all finding aids, archivists work to contextualize the contents of manuscript collections.