Ethel Hopkins papers

MS 404

Women members of Ogalala Sioux, undated.

Collection dates: 1933-1954

About this collection

Papers, 1933-1948. This collection is composed of the papers of Ethel "Ma" Hopkins. Primarily containing correspondence and her photograph collection amassed during her tenure as editor and publisher of Hoofs and Horns Magazine. Ethel Hopkins' correspondence includes letters discussing rodeo events, advertising, rodeo performers, magazine submissions of all kinds, and magazine subscriptions and circulation. Ethel Hopkins maintained close relationships with many Western writers and rodeo personalities, and there is a personal element throughout much of her correspondence. The General Series includes correspondence documenting daily life in Tucson, the social climate created by World War II, the changing Western landscape, and various accounts of the trials and tribulations of cowboys, ranchers, and rodeo folk. Similarly the photographs and prints contained in the collection include materials gathered for publication in Hoofs and Horns, as well as items inscribed to Mrs. Hopkins personally, illustrating her relationship with specific rodeo characters.

Four monographs from the collection were cataloged separately. They are as follows and can be accessed through the University of Arizona Library Catalog.

Songs of the Southwest, by Juanita Elliott

Autumn Leaves, by May Stevens Isaacs

Left Handed Law, by Charles M. Martin

Rodeo Cowboy, by Charles M. Martin

Historical background

Ethel A. Hopkins was born and raised on a farm in Missouri. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 1908 and worked as a school teacher in both Missouri and Oklahoma. She came to Tucson in 1916 due to the ill health of her husband and continued to work, first as a school teacher and later as a stenographer and secretary at the University of Arizona. After the passing of her first husband she married J. W. Hopkins, an officer at the Acme Printing Company. In 1933 Mrs. Hopkins purchased Hoofs and Horns Magazine, a weekly cattle paper that had ceased publication during the depression. She re-conceptualized Hoofs and Horns, first publishing it in October of 1933 as a monthly magazine, shifting the focus towards the sport of rodeo while still accommodating the interests of cattlemen. Mrs. Hopkins acted as publisher and editor of Hoofs and Horns until 1954, crafting the magazine to contain a "balanced ration of sense and nonsense": featuring news articles, verse, humor, and poetry intended for "simple cow country folk." An ardent rodeo fan, Mrs. Hopkins came to meet, befriend, and correspond with many rodeo personalities and contestants while promoting and seeking submissions and advertisements for her publication.

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