The Bancroft Survey Project

Bathing Suit Season in the 1900s!

2010-06-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

Summer Solstice is upon us, and even amidst the Bay Area's summer fog the temperatures are rising. Bathing suit season is finally here in all its balmy glory.

Fancy a trip to the beach? Well just pull on your wool suit, cape and swimming boots- and don't forget your knee socks and hat- and meet me down by the seashore for some frolicking in the waves.

This image is from a 1906 mailing card used for advertising.

The note on the back said the card was considered flawed for

not showing the men's suit, but "the picture was so very good

the temptation was too great to leave it unused."

One day far too many months ago to be to my credit I surveyed the records of the Gantner and Mattern Company, a New York based clothing manufacturer with a large outpost in San Francisco. Featured prominently among the volumes of the collection are several swimsuit catalogs ranging from as early as 1900 to the mid-1950s.

There were far too many amusing and bewitching examples of yesterday's swim fashions to choose from, but I did manage to scan just a few images for the fashion-minded viewer's pleasure- I even chose some examples from the men's catalog. Those Project Runway designers might just get some ideas from this one!

This is an example from 1906, with a very demure looking model in what seems to be a fairly scanty suit- perhaps an athletic version.

Also from 1906- full swim dresses. Note the tights and lace-up shoes.

This is a page from the 1906 men's catalog. I really like the striped trunks. Stripes were definitely in that year!

A much later example, this is a page from the 1943 Gantner & Mattern catalog. The model is wearing an example of the company's "wikies" trunks- the "de luxe" fancy version made of 100% worsted wool. Prices ranged from $3.95 to $6.00.

The cheaper version, left, is also from the 1943 men's catalog. The trunks are made from gabardine and prices range from $1.95 to $2.50. (By the way, doesn't everyone smoke while they swim?)

The women's 1943 catalog notes that these styles are made of new, non-essential textiles, such as velvet, faille, and seersucker. I adore the one on the top right with the flower decal. Not bad for war-time looks!

I like this last example, another mailing card from 1906, because she's laughing.

Whenever I trying on a new bathing suit, I always laugh too.

Visit the Bancroft to view the collection in the library- it's a SPLASH!

See: BANC MSS C-A 399 Gantner and Mattern Co., San Francisco records, ca. 1901-1957.

-- D. Miller

Eidu Maru shipwreck drawings

2010-05-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

According to the tale told in this account, the Japanese ship Eidu Maru set sail from Japan in 1841 with a crew of 13 and a cargo of sake, sugar, salt, incense sticks, flax, and other goods. Soon after leaving port it was caught in a series of storms that damaged it and drove it East, until the crew lost sight of land. With no sails, the ship drifted in the currents for 4-5 months until the crew spotted "2 white mountains" that turned out to be the sails of a Spanish ship off the coast of Baja California. The Japanese sailors and remaining cargo were brought aboard the other ship which then unloaded them near Cape San Lucas, following which, they traveled overland to San José del Cabo. A few years later, crew member Hyozen Togen Takichi wrote this account of the abandoning of the ship and the experiences of the crew in Mexico, illustrating the manuscript with beautiful watercolors showing the rescue, the landscape, and scenes of Mexican life.

Hyozen Togen Takichi was a 48 year old crew member from Shimabara, Hizen Province [Nagasaki Prefecture]. His representations of Baja California's landscape and people in a traditional Japanese 19th century style of drawing are remarkable and the detailed descriptions of life in mid ninteenth century Mexico and how it compared to Japan are often funny, and always engaging. Although the original manuscript is in Japanese, it is accompanied by an English transcription which is definitely worth a read!

This first image is a detail showing the Eidu Maru crew unloading their cargo into the dinghy belonging to the larger Spanish ship, the prow of which can be seen in the upper right-hand corner.

To the right are the crew members just after being brought ashore in Baja California. The Mexicans are riding horses and some are sharing their saddle with a Japanese sailor.

These cattle are almost dancing, and the house in the background, with its thatched roof appears to be more Japanese in style than Mexican.

Here, a man, possibly a crew member, addresses a group of men and women wearing traditional Mexican garb.

From Mekishiko shinwa: Strange stories from Mexico (BANC MSS M-M 1902)

-- E. Van Lith

400 year old book brings rare smile to grumpy archivist

2010-04-06T15:04:00.000-07:00

A beautiful title page from a surprising find.

My post today is more casual and off-the-cuff than usual. Simply put, I was having one of those survey days where everything is more complicated than it seems like it should be. Certain oversized folders weren't quite where I expected them to be, mischievous elves had misnumbered or mislabeled other items, and my catalog records were starting to swim together. When would this enormous survey project EVER end?? Would things EVER be clear cut and straightforward again? Argh!

Then I came upon a French illustrated genealogy from 1635. Its thick, strong cloth paper, careful hand-written script and intricate, pigment-dyed paintings of family coats of arms (or crests) all attest to its 375 long years of existence. Most of these items are found in the rare books collection, but this one is part of manuscripts and thus on my list to survey today.

I am not of French extraction, nor do I have any other particular connection to this item (although it would be terrific if my family history book was this ornate), I was just happy to see it today. Not only is it exceptionally old (especially for a repository located in California, which only became a state in 1850), it is colorful. A true relic of another time and place. Enjoy!

(All images are photos of Banc MSS 71/166: Pierre d' Hozier genealogie de L'Illustre Maison Des Ursins, Paris, 1635)

The cover is probably from the 19th century. Yes, it is dusty. Don't worry- we'll have it cleaned and wrapped.

Above: the first page, (most likely) bears holding up the family crest.

Right: Two examples of coats of arms within branches of the Ursins family.

Below: Details of more coats of arms; at bottom, a colorful family tree.

-- D. Miller (no longer as grumpy)

A Criminal Past

2010-03-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Throughout the survey we have run across many sets of historic prison records from California's prisons, including the famous examples of Alcatraz, San Quentin, and Folsom. There are at least four sets of records from San Quentin alone, and several other more general prison record books.

The mug shots from some of these collections are pretty intriguing and, at least on the surface, they appear to reflect the personalities of their subjects. There are also records of prison inmates, descriptions of criminals in custody and at large, and criminal culture, such as the "Alphabet of Thief Slang" index below.

Above is a page from Prison Record Book for San Quentin and Folsom prisons, 1904-1911 (BANC MSS 89/44). One volume of this collection contains prisoners' pictures, while the other has their records and descriptions of their crimes. More from this collection below:

(Can you profile a criminal based on the shape and style of his- or her- hat?! Hmm, let's see, we've got bowlers, pork pies, and even a floral ladies hat. With all these fashion choices it's impossible to tell the bank robbers from the cold-blooded assassins!)

A particularly interesting piece of prison history also exists in the Bancroft's manuscript collections in the form of a scrapbook of various criminals, composed by the Sheriff's Office of Woodland, in Yolo County, California. Titled the Edward F. Boyle Mug Book, 1875-1899 [BANC MSS 91/26], it contains some very rich descriptions. I particularly like the "Bad Egg" page. Transcriptions are included:

Robert May
Alias
Robt. Sullivan
at Alcatraz Island
Bad Egg

American 20 years of age- 5 feet 9 1/4 inches in stockings-
dark complexion- [blear?] skin- no whiskers- small black eyes- black hair- small mouth. [R.S.M.] and the American Flag in Indian Ink on left arm.

John Thompson
Alias
Old Man Winnie
Burglar
at large

American 44 years of age- 5 feet 2 1/2 inches high- light complexion- blue eyes- hair turning gray bald head- Rum Nose- face covered with Rum Blotches. Served 1 term of 4 years in San Quentin.

Index of Thief Slang: [note that the columns switch]
Burn a House = Glim a Crib
Pistol = Pop
Tumbled or Dropped = Got Suspicious
Jimmy = a Chisel for Prying
Hand Cuffs = [Darbies]
Pete = Lock
Breaking a Lock = Make Pete Laugh
Crabs = Shoes or Mockisins (sic)

--- D. Miller

Conservation challenges

2010-03-11T12:30:00.000-08:00

It can be hard to care for scrapbooks since they often have brittle acidic pages and many items glued to them. But when you starting adding objects like cigarettes and berries, it ups the ante a little!

The berries in the scrapbook below were decorations on a Christmas tree - too bad they didn't just take a photo...

Scrapbooks from the Pringle Family Papers, Banc mss 72/203

-A. Croft

More Label Humor

2010-03-05T09:18:00.000-08:00

Hats off to whoever is responsible for this next set of hilarious extraneous container labels. While I can't know who or what drove them to type out such wonderful absurdities, I can enjoy the results and definitely appreciate being jerked out of the sometime mundane work of the survey.

I came across the following silly label on box 3 of a collection of documents relating to missions in New Mexico, circa 1605-1720 (BANC MSS M-A 4:1). While the box itself was labeled as a box, the library MARC record described all the containers as cartons; apparently this discrepancy didn't sit well with the label's creator.

This next label defies description. It is located on box 1 of a collection of documents reflecting relations of Indians and Spaniards over tribute, wool mills, treatment of the natives, and government regulations, 1544-1608 (BANC MSS M-A 7). What any of those subjects could have to do with bologna sandwiches or chocolate cake is beyond my ability to figure out. The incongruity kills me.

--E. Van Lith

Redwood Reforestation in Lumber's Halcyon Days

2010-01-07T16:42:00.000-08:00

Possibly my favorite part of this job, surveying The Bancroft's myriad manuscript collections, is how one is continually immersed in different people's stories, different realities, and so many of California's many different incarnations. In the late part of the 19th and the first half of the 20th centuries, one important part of California's economy and story was lumber, especially redwood, and many of Bancroft's collections from the period relate directly to the lumber industry, among them, records from some of California's largest lumber companies, including Union Lumber, Pacific Lumber, and the Redwood Manufacturers Company (RMC). While surveying this last collection (BANC MSS C-G 202) I came across a binder of redwood advertising materials from the 1930s that took me right back to lumber's heyday when the industry's biggest problem was probably not being able to cut the trees down fast enough.

The binder was assembled by the California Redwood Association especially for RMC and generally touts the superiority of redwood over all other lumber, using such tag lines as, "California Redwood: The World's most durable Lumber," as can be seen in the image to the left. The text just below the image reads, "Count of annual rings shows down log … to have been exposed to wind and weather, ON THE GROUND SINCE THE YEAR 571 B. C.! Redwood log is still sound and solid."Other images in the binder show redwood shingles taken off of houses in damp coastal cities which despite being between 50 and 75 years old, are still in nearly new condition, while still other images show buildings made of redwood which had survived fire. Over and over, the sales materials tout redwood's durability. Which, of course, is hardly surprising, any industry wants to sell as much of its product as possible. But I was surprised by a piece titled "Supply Reforestation" that started off with the headline, "The Coast Redwood is California's Perpetual Crop ~ and Her Oldest," and concluded with the following optimistic quote:

"With the economical utilization of the timber supply that, growing for centuries, is still sufficient to last for 100 years, and the present reforestation operations, which assure a crop of second growth Redwood within sixty years, there is no chance whatsoever that Redwoods will become extinct as was predicted some years ago [sic]. Consequently, California can look forward to being perpetually in the Redwood lumber business, users of Redwood may count upon a continuous supply of this quality material and at the same time tourists will always have, in addition to parks of virgin trees, great timbered areas in which the grandeur of Nature has been enhanced by the hand of man."

In between, the item details what are most likely some of the lumber industry's earliest reforestation efforts in California and includes several photographs, including the following (enlarge the photographs to read the captions).

Unfortunately for both the lumber industry and perhaps most importantly California's stands of redwoods, consumption did not stay at circa 1930 levels and redwood takes a long, long time, longer than 60 years, to fully mature and begin to replace the forest that has been lost.

--E. Van Lith

Poetry about a physist - who knew?

2010-01-06T16:33:00.000-08:00

While surveying the other day, I came across a ballad someone wrote about the physicist Ernest Orlando Lawrence. Lawrence won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1939 for his cyclotron, a machine which accelerates charged nuclear particles. These quickly moving particles were used to bombard atoms of various elements, disintegrating the atoms and sometimes forming completely new elements. Because of this, his cyclotron was also called the "atom smasher".

Lawrence’s work was very influential, but I was still a little surprised to come across a poem about him in one of his scrapbooks. It is called “The Ballad of the Cyclotron” and was written by Walter Weeks.

"The Ballad of the Cyclotron"
By Walter Weeks

There was a young professor in a college by the bay
Who believed that atoms could be smashed in some ingenious way
If he could make electrons go at twenty miles an hour
He thought there would be volts enough to give him ample power.

And so he took some auto springs and magnetized them well
And then he took some copper screen just why I cannot tell
And then he took a radio and a worn out rubber tire
And he tied them all together with a piece of baling wire.

The electrons came from the radio and started round the track
And every time they came around it kicked them in the back
When at the bung hole they arrived they'd had so many jolts
That their speed was the equivalent of a hundred million volts.

And thus evolved the cyclotron of which you all have heard
And of its wonders in a day I could not tell a third
This statement broad is heard today in every lecture hall
If it can't be done with a cyclotron it shouldn't be done at all.

The Prexy came around to see the gadget put to test
Of course the young professor wished to show it at its best
You may fire the thing when ready, boy, the eager Prexy cried
So Lawrence pushed the switches in and quickly stepped aside.

He aimed it at the window pane and knocked out all the glass
He swung it round the campus and it burnt up all the grass
He fired it at some students and it knocked them off their feet
Then he bombed the campanile and he moved it down the street.

And then he bombed some common lead and turned it into gold
The Prexy jumped around with joy and loudly shouted, hold,
I am convinced the thing is good, no more I'll have to go
To the solons up in Sacrement to beg them for some dough.

A Swedish scientist, Nobel, a man both great and kind
Left some prizes to bestow on any master mind
So forty thousand dollars and a big diploma too
They gave to Ernest Lawrence and with that my friends I'm through.

Here are some images of Lawrence with the cyclotron.

Perhaps poetry is used by physicists more often then you would think. Lawrence and his friend Rowan also wrote an ode to their friend Alfred on his 70th birthday.

More biographical information about Lawrence:
Ernest Orlando Lawrence was born in 1901 in Canton, South Dakota. He received his B.A. in Chemistry from the University of South Dakota (1922), his M.A. from the University of Minnesota (1923) and his Ph.D. from Yale (1925). Lawrence came to UC Berkeley in 1928 as Associate professor of Physics and became a full professor at age 30 – at that time the youngest professor at the University. Lawrence founded the Radiation Laboratory at UC Berkeley in 1936 and was its director until his death in 1958.

John Hundale Lawrence (6 months) and Ernest Orlando Lawrence (3 years) in 1904

If you are interested in other Nobel prize winners from UC Berkeley be sure to stop by and see “California Gold: The Nobel Tradition at UC Berkeley” in the exhibit case in the reading room!
(http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/permanent.html#nobel)

-A. Croft

BANC MSS 2005/200 Ernest Orlando Lawrence Papers
All photos and the “Ballad of the Cyclotron” are in oversize box 3; “Ode to Alfred” is in carton 1.

Labels We Have Loved (and Feared)

2010-01-06T14:49:00.000-08:00

Fisher-Merriam Family papers (BANC MSS 2004/112)

Friends of the Earth records (BANC MSS 82/98)

---M. Bryer

"Thank God For California"

2010-01-06T14:32:00.000-08:00

Joan Didion graduated from UC Berkeley in 1956 with a degree in English. Between 1955-1960, she wrote a number of letters to her friend Peggy La Violette detailing her cross-country train travels, life at home in Sacramento and as a senior at UC Berkeley, and her work at Vogue in New York. Her letters were great fun to read and I think fans of her writing will find her salutations particularly charming.

Written on a Thursday from her home in Sacramento

Written on a Wednesday evening from the La Salle Hotel in Chicago

--- M. Bryer

F*** U

2010-01-06T13:48:00.000-08:00

Ed Sanders, editor of Fuck You / A Magazine of the Arts sent this letter to the Acquisitions Department of the Main Library at UC Berkeley on February 21, 1965 (BANC MSS 92/788)

Sanders, a Beat poet, member of the band The Fugs and owner of Peace Eye Bookshop, founded Fuck You and published 13 issues between 1962-1965. According to the Verdant Press website, the magazine "was considered one of the most influential underground magazines of the early Sixties." The mimeographed journal featured poetry and included a veritable who's who of 1960s poets, artists and writers, including Andy Warhol, Charles Olson, Allen Ginsburg, Philip Whalen, Ted Berrigan, Frank O'Hara, Robert Creeley, Robert Duncan, Gary Snyder, Gregory Corso, William Burroughs, Diane DiPrima and Leroi Jones.

(See http://www.verdantpress.com/fuckyou.html for more information)

--- M. Bryer

Berkeley in the Seventies

2010-01-05T17:09:00.000-08:00

The Sexual Freedom League (SFL) was founded in New York City in 1963 in order to promote the political ideals of sexual freedom. It became associated with the Bay Area when Jefferson Poland, one of its founders, moved here and concentrated his organizing efforts at the University of California, Berkeley. Poland founded the Psychedelic Venus Church, an offshoot of the League, circa 1970. As a catalog entry from the Sexual Freedom League Collection at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University points out, these records are of interest to scholars researching sexual attitudes (and sexual politics) in the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s.

These flyers from the Psychedelic Venus Church are invitations to events the group held in Berkeley. (Sexual Freedom League Records, BANC MSS 83/181)

--- M. Bryer

Miss Rural Electrification

2010-01-05T15:31:00.001-08:00

Jan Brown, a student at Angelo State College in Texas, was named "Miss Rural Electrification of 1966" at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association's (NRECA) annual meeting in Las Vegas. Brown represented the Central Texas Electrical Co-Op at Fredericksburg. The cover story noted that she "proved that beauty and brains go admirably together." If we view pageants not merely as trivial or exploitative, but as civic rituals that produce political subjects, then we can see Brown as the feminine embodiment of the values of the co-op she represented.

According to its website, NRECA was organized in 1942 to overcome shortages of electric construction materials during WWII, get insurance for newly constructed rural electrical cooperatives and "mitigate wholesale power problems." "Rural Electrification: Non-Partisan, Non-Profit, One-Cent Electricity for Rural America," was the Association's monthly publication. Today, NRECA represents "the national interests of cooperative electric utilities and the consumers they serve." They still publish "Rural Electric Magazine" on a monthly basis.

We found this issue in the Grace McDonald papers (BANC MSS 85/139). McDonald, a consumer advocate, helped form the California Farm Research and Legislative Committee and was Executive Secretary of the California Farmer Consumer Information Committee. In addition to lobbying on behalf of farm laborers, McDonald also worked on occupational health and safety issues. Her 1951 novel, "Swing Shift," written under the pseudonym Margaret Graham, told the story of organized and unorganized railroad men, miners and tobacco workers.

--- M. Bryer

African American Ephemera

2010-01-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

James de Tarr Abajian (1914-1986) was librarian of the California Historical Society from 1950-1968. He also served as curator of the Kemble Collections on Western Printing (until 1977) and as archivist for the San Francisco Archdiocese of the Catholic Church (until he retired in 1983). Abajian compiled many significant bibliographic resources on African Americans in the United States. These included Blacks in Selected Newspapers, Censuses and Other Sources: An Index to Names and Subjects and Blacks and Their Contributions to the American West.

Abajian also collected ephemera that documented the lives of African Americans. The following images were culled from his collection of Black ephemera (BANC MSS 82/77). These flyers and pamphlets offer a window into a wide variety of social, political, economic and religous activities in African American communities throughout California, circa 1968-1969.

--- M. Bryer

A message of peace for the holidays

2009-12-21T14:03:00.000-08:00

Several months ago I was surveying the Paul Seabury papers, Banc MSS 91/115, currently an unprocessed collection. I came across something unique among the papers in the collection and extraordinary in itself. Although I am still not quite sure it was authored by Seabury, a few clues do point in that direction.

"And the Shrimps Eat Mud" is a sort of primitive graphic novel, like a picture book for adults, mostly revolving around themes of power inequity and war. It tells the story of a mythical Charles Darwin, fretting over the ways that powerful men oppress their less powerful fellows, and how the oppressed are often forced into war.

It is dozens of pages long, and I found the cartoon drawings very touching, especially in the way the faces of downtrodden or underdog characters are portrayed on many pages.

In the story, eventually the downtrodden peasants revolt and refuse to engage in the rich men's war, and Darwin is no longer plagued by sleepless nights.

The estimated dates for "And the Shrimps Eat Mud" are not consistent with the bulk of the collection-- the paper it's drawn on, the style of drawing, and the outfits of the military figures all suggest the cartoon was created after the first World War but before the second. Yet Seabury was born in 1923, too late to experience the effects of World War I firsthand, and he as far as I can tell he did not come to teach at Cal until the 1950s (I think)-- and the bulk of his papers date from the 1950s-1980s.

However, Seabury's calisphere entry notes that while he was often labeled a reactionary, he was also a harsh critic of the powerful whether in politics or religion, which is the central point of "And the Shrimps Eat Mud." He is also characterized as whimsical, which the cartoon definitely is.

Whomever the author, this piece has captivated my attention. It is one of those rare gems in the archives with the immediacy to connect us to the humanity beyond the stacks. Items like this one make every day of the survey worth its weight in gold.

Happy Holidays everyone!
- D. Miller, 12/21/2009

Motto: Be Merry

2009-10-30T16:41:00.000-07:00

Surveying account books and ledgers is never very exciting. However today when I was surveying the Mokelumne Hill Canal and Mining Company account books I was surprised to come across some drawings!

I can only guess that these were done by a child of someone who worked at the mining company or who kept these books before they were acquired by the Bancroft.

Later on in the volume there are some rules and a list of officers for a club.

The rules read:
Come to every meeting you can.
Don't be silly.
Obey orders.
Keep the Promise.

Promise?

Motto: Be Merry

Now depending on what the promise is (they were smart enough not to write it down) this sounds like a fun club to be a part of!

Banc mss C-G 280, Mokelumne Hill Canal and Mining Company account books, 1854-1907

-A. Croft

History, now playing on an ipod near you

2009-09-24T16:43:00.000-07:00

While surveying part of the Charles Collins Teague Papers today, I opened a box marked St. Francis Dam Disaster. I had never heard of the disaster in an historical or scholarly context before, but I did know the story through a pop culture reference- a 2001 song of the same name by Frank Black and the Catholics (penned by Frank Black of Pixies fame).

Southern California Edison Company construction camp near Los Angeles- Ventura County lines, where 145 men lost their lives.

The St. Francis Dam Disaster occurred a few minutes before midnight on March 12, 1928, when a concrete dam located 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles broke violently apart and the resulting tidal waves of water rushing to the ocean ruined towns and took hundreds of lives. Charles Teague was deeply involved with the development of agriculture in Southern California, and served as president for various companies and associations connected with the citrus industry. At the time of the St. Francis Dam Failure, Teague was Chief of the Santa Clara Water Conservation District, where the disaster took place.

View looking North on South 4^th St. Santa Paula, California

According to Wikipedia, the St. Francis Dam flood killed 600 people and ranks among the worst civil engineering disasters in American history, effectively ending the career of its chief engineer, William Mulholland.

This document from the Teague papers estimates the death toll at 385 (penciled in at bottom) rather than 600.

Above are some images and a document from Teague's files on the St. Francis Dam failure, while the lyrics of the Frank Black song follow below. A google map search for the town of Piru enables one to see all of the towns mentioned in Black's lyrics; the "water master man" Black refers to is clearly Mulholland; "powerhouse #2" may refer to the Edison camp pictured in the top photo.

St. Francis Dam Disaster

Frank Black and the Catholics

There was a well known water master man

He was the king

He could do anything

The Saint Francis Dam disaster man

Thought she was all right

Until around midnight

Because that water seeks her own

She had a desire to flow

She was looking for somewhere to go

She was a slave to the great metropolis

She was feeling choked

She pushed the wall till it broke

When they heard

The great apocalypse

At power house number two

Well there was nothing they could do

Because that water seeks her own

Five and one half hours she would flow

She had fifty-three miles to go

A cascade down to Santa Clara way

Near sixty feet high

Now she's a mile wide

It was clear she was going far away

And whole towns were too

A few got lucky in Piru

Because that water seeks her own

But four more hours she would flow

She had twenty-nine miles to go

She carried in her every kind of thing

House, trees, and telegraph pole

Some say a thousand souls

At three A.M. she gave Santa Paula a ring

She was still twenty-five feet high

Under a peaceful sky

Because that water seeks her own

But two more hours she would flow

She had nineteen miles more to go

It was a real bad night in little Saticoy

El Rio then Montalvo

How many no one really knows

Ventura Beach was very scary boy

Humanity a pile

She went her final mile

Because that water seeks her own

Into the sea the water flowed

And now for forever she would go

In an interview for Blogcritics, Black quipped that he had the song for a number of years before putting lyrics to it at the urging of his bandmates, "It was a grey and windy day... lyrics are, you know, about stuff. " Black may in fact have had a grudge against Mulholland. He also penned a song in 1994 called Olé Mulholland. I may find myself perusing my Frank Black CD collection tonight when I get home to look for more historical commentary.

Charles Collins Teague papers, BANC MSS C-B 760, Box 4.
See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Francis_Dam and http://www.frankblack.net/tabs/
and http://blogcritics.org/music/article/the-blogcritics-frank-black-interview-is/

---D. Miller

Label Humor

2009-07-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

Some creative container labeling has happened at The Bancroft, as these three labels from the 1960s and 1970s clearly show. But before we go further, let me dispel any worries about labeling standards at Bancroft by saying that all the containers had appropriate labels as well. Whew!

The first two labels come from the Edmund G. "Pat" Brown papers (BANC MSS 68/90 c), a 1,029 carton behemoth of a collection of the papers of Pat Brown who served as Governor of California from 1959 to 1967. Despite the interesting material and the importance of the collection, while we were surveying the collection I sometimes felt we would never see the end and I imagine the archivist tasked with creating all the carton labels felt the same way, possibly typing these two labels to alleviate the monotony.
The first label is funny on its own, but makes more sense when you realize that there are nearly 100 cartons of Senate and Assembly bills in the Brown collection. After 80 or 90 cartons of legislative bills, wouldn't you want them to rest in peace too?

I can't remember exactly where the second label was found so it will just have to speak for itself.

And now the best for last. This third label was found stuck on a carton in the Papers on European and American printers (BANC MSS 74/150 c). I'm not sure if the person typing the label was commenting on their feelings about the subject matter of the collection or possibly aspects of the archival profession, but I'm sure all archivists can relate.

--E. Van Lith

Kaiser: Beauty in Business, part 1

2009-06-25T12:10:00.000-07:00

Many Californians will recognize the name Kaiser (or Kaiser-Permanente) and associate it with the health care industry giant it has become. But historically the Kaiser empire, started in 1912 by Henry J. Kaiser, was into much more than hospitals, and included a road-paving business, large-scale construction projects, shipbuilding and shipyard operation, Kaiser-Frazer automobile plants, steel mills, aluminum, chemical and cement companies, low-income housing projects, and real estate development in Hawaii.

Over the past couple months, Marjorie and I have surveyed two large collections under the Kaiser name: the papers of Henry J. Kaiser (Banc MSS 83/42; 329 cartons, 194 volumes), and those of his son Edgar F. Kaiser (Banc MSS 85/61; 500 cartons and 32 volumes).

While I tend to consider many corporate records less than thrilling, there were some surprisingly colorful finds inside these collections, if one looked deep enough.

The following images are from the Edgar F. Kaiser papers (Banc MSS 85/61, volume 25) and show a 1957 marketing proposal booklet for their automobile line that highlights potential uses of colorized aluminum for the interiors and exteriors of cars. Earlier in the 1940s and early 1950s Kaiser had teamed up with Frazer and Darrin to produce a handful of car models, stylish classics that can still occasionally be found today (look around for the Kaiser "Virginian," "Manhattan," the "Special", and my personal favorite, the "Dragon" hardtop convertible!). These cars were never made, aluminum being a questionable choice of material for this purpose-- is anyone else thinking, "What about dents?!"-- and Kaiser had ceased production in earnest around 1955.

Still, if you love mid-century modern design like I do, you'll get a kick of out some of these car designs. Note how the car models are named after different California cities and landmarks. How lovely to be driving around town in a "Piedmont..."

This is a page of sample colors and textures that could be put on the interior of the car, in such places as doors, dash, foot panel, etc.

Personally, the pink swirls and the turquoise beehive would go great with, well, nothing in my own utilitarian car, but hey a girl can dream.

Behold, the "Golden Gate," a station wagon with lots and lots of window...

The "Del Mar," roomy and zoomy- check out the space-age trunk of this metal behemoth!

And finally, the "Merced." Looks like a fun ride to me!

(Other models can be seen in this volume of the collection. The artist was not noted anywhere in the document. Part 2 to come in July.)

--D. Miller

Good News for Elephants

2009-06-22T10:48:00.000-07:00

We have come across many cartons of unsorted newspaper clippings during the survey so far. Unfortunately, this is not a rare sight:

Normally I wouldn't look too closely at them and would just make note in our database that there were loose and bundled clippings in this carton. However, these are clippings that Hubert Howe Bancroft collected and there was one bundle in particular that caught my eye:

[labeled "Useful Items"]

I was intrigued to say the least. I decided to spend some extra time to look at this small bundle and see what Hubert Howe Bancroft thought was useful in the late 1800s. The topics ranged from new patents, scientific discoveries, and funny items. My favorite clipping is one that describes the use of the meat of potatoes as a substitute for ivory - which, as the author points out, is excellent news for elephants!

I also enjoyed reading about a trio of traveling rats....

...and I learned about the beneficial effects of wearing flannel (actually pretty relevant for the surveyors given our chilly work environment!)

Here are some others that I liked:

From Banc MSS B-C 14: Bancroft miscellaneous newspaper clippings, 1860-1890.

--A. Croft

Oh, Bancroft, brave Bancroft!

2009-06-19T12:07:00.000-07:00

H uber t H owe Bancroft Middle School in Los Angeles, Calif., the "home of the cougars," was named after our very own founding father, H.H.B. And the school honors its namesake in its school song, the lyrics for which Amy and I came across when surveying the Hubert Howe Bancroft family papers, BANC MSS, 73/64. Just how the lyrics came to the Bancroft family we'll never know, but we can all be thankful they did.

It's a toss-up for my favorite lines.
After all, what archivist could resist the following lyric?:

"He collected many manuscripts and worked without delay.
To preserve for posterity.
To preserve for posterity."

But the chorus does tug at my heartstrings:

"Oh, Bancroft, brave Bancroft,
'Twas a name known to fame in days of yore;
May it ever be glorious
Till the sun shall climb in the heavens no more."

A note at the bottom of the sheet says the song should be sung to the tune of "Lord Jeffrey Amherst" the fight song of Amherst College. In case you have the irrepressible urge to honor H.H.B. in song, you can get the tune by listening to "Lord Jeffrey" at http://www.amherst57.org /members/lyrics.htm. Just click on the button on the left for "Lord Jeffrey."

Enjoy!

--E. Van Lith

Marx for Cranston

2009-06-12T12:43:00.001-07:00

In 1968, Alan Cranston was elected to his first term as Senator from California. While surveying his papers (BANC MSS 88/214), we came across this humorous exchange between Groucho Marx and the new Senator.

November 7, 1968

Dear Senator: I was one of your strongest supporters and one who believed in your integrity - perhaps even manhood. I sent you a check for $25.00 so you could defeat that profane schoolteacher.

Inasmuch as you are now safely ensconced in office and Paulson has dropped out of the race, I think you would be doing a handsome deed by returning my $25.00. However, if you insist upon running again at some future date, just send me the money and I will hold it in escrow until I find out definitely what your plans are for the future. Incidentally, while you're in Washington, see if you can't incapacitate Senator Murphy.

Sincerely,
Groucho Marx

P.S. This is a pretty lousy letter and, incidentally, the check I sent you wasn't too much either.

January 30, 1969

Dear Groucho:

I was relieved to learn that you believe in my integrity and my manhood, just as you will be relieved to learn that your $25.00 check, which I promptly cashed, was good.

So much for my integrity, my manhood and your twenty-five bucks.

Gratefully,
Alan Cranston

--M. Bryer

Archival Toilet Paper

2009-06-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

Here is a quickie, but it's an amusing one.

Today we were surveying the papers of the Crown Zellerbach Corporation, a very large paper company operating in the Pacific Northwest that was a parent company to 184 other paper companies.

The company even had its own Crown Zellerbach History Committee, recognizing the importance of its own history in a new executive policy order as early as 1954. They obviously took their charge seriously and saved a lot of materials.

We saw the records of dozens of paper, pulp, lumber, transportation, and mill companies, but were a bit surprised by what we found in carton 43, pictured here:

The finding aid described it as: "Roll of 'Spring Notch Toilet Tissue' recovered from a wall of the Sequoia Hotel, Fresno, California. ca.1920s"

Thus, we were looking at what is soon to be a 100 year old roll of toilet paper! And it's only Monday...

(See Crown Zellerbach Corporation records, BANC MSS 88/215 cp)

--D. Miller

For Your Teducation

2009-05-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Jazz musician and poet Ted Joans was born Ted Jones on July 4, 1928 in Cairo, Illinois. He changed his surname to distinguish it from the familiar spelling and, some say, to honor a woman named Joan. At the time of his death in May 2003, Joans’ career was enjoying a resurgence due, in part, to the publication of his poetry anthology “Teducation” (1999).

Joans earned his B.F.A. from Indiana University and moved to Greenwich Village in 1951. According to historian Robin D.G. Kelley, he "was one of the original Beat poets, though you wouldn't know it from most Beat anthologies. He was the author of over 30 books of poetry, prose, and collage, including Black Pow-Wow, Beat Funk Jazz Poems, Afrodisia, Jazz Is Our Religion, Double Trouble, Wow and Teducation." Kelley calls Joans the "grandaddy of bringing jazz and 'spoken word' together on the bandstand." In the early 1960s, Joans made Timbuktu his home base and traveled the world doing poetry readings and creating "happenings." He also lived in Tangiers, Morocco and Paris, France.

Joans was also a surrealist. Kelley writes, “Joans’ mantra was ‘Jazz is my religion and surrealism is my point of view.’” He describes Joans' “Black Flower” (1968) statement, as “a surrealist manifesto that envisioned a movement of black people in the U.S. bringing down American imperialism from within with the weapon of poetic imagery, ‘black flowers’ sprouting all over the land.” Kelley adds that “all his writing, like his life, was a relentless revolt."

Joans and his companion, artist Laura Corsiglia, moved to Vancouver in 2001, after the acquittal of the New York City police officers who fatally shot Amadou Diallo; he vowed never to live in the United States again. Joans died in Vancouver in May 2003. When jazz great Charlie Parker, his former roommate, died in 1955, Joans wrote “Bird Lives!” on the streets of Lower Manhattan.” Kelley reports that “A few poets in the know have already left chalked salutes in the streets. Let the Village know: ‘Ted Lives!’

-- M. Bryer

Quotes were taken from Robin D.G. Kelley's obituary for Ted Joans, which appeared in The Village Voice, May 20, 2003. Kelley (my favorite historian) is Professor of History, American Studies and Ethnicity at USC. His many books include Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the Great Depression and Race Rebels: Culture Politics and the Black Working Class. His biography of jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk will be published in Fall 2009.

Photos: Top Row, Left: Reading in Amsterdam Artist Club, photo and copyright, Nico van der Stam; Top Row, Right: "Hipster Book Signing"; Second Row, Left: "Compromised Character of Colored Contemporary Co-Op Amateur Artist, Southern Indiana Branch"; Second Row, right: Joans, with Ruth Kligman ("The Liz Taylor of Bohemia") and William de Kooning; Third Row, Left: Joans and poet Don L. Lee, "An automatic poet-chant, 'We Have Come Back, First Pan African Cultural Festival in Algeria, performed with indigenous Algerians"; Third Row, Right: "Avec J.P. Sartre"; Bottom: Stokely Carmichael, Princess Sierra Leone. All captions were written by Ted Joans.

The Ted Joans papers (BANC MSS 99/244) contain manuscript material, including many unpublished poems, and personal and professional correspondence with friends and colleagues, including Amiri Baraka, Stokely Carmichael, Diane di Prima, Bob Kaufmann, Ishmael Reed, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti and Allen Ginsberg. There are also -- as seen above -- some fabulous photographs. (For more photos, see the Ted Jones photograph albums -- BANC PIC 1999.097)

Foul Tip: One inmate's take on Folsom Prison life in 1895

2009-04-21T08:29:00.000-07:00

The Folsom Prison Magazine collection (BANC MSS C-H 6) gives a colorful and satirical inside look at inmate life at the prison in 1895.

Opened in 1880, Folsom Prison is California's second oldest state prison after San Quentin and one of the earliest maximum security prisons built in the United States. Inmates housed there in the 1890s would have spent most of their time in the dark, locked inside a 4x8' stone cell with a 6" eye slot in the solid boilerplate door.

Despite, and definitely inspired by, this bleak life, one inmate created a magazine of poems, cartoons, and satirical articles concerning life at the prison with subjects ranging from an inmate baseball team and domesticated rats, to a touring ballet revue title Black Crook.

One dark poem, located on page 5, reads:
With iron hand he rules the waiters,
And sleight of hand forbids,
He feeds the Cons on stewed potatoes,
And tries to mash the kids.
--M.T. Stomach

--E. Van Lith

BART - What Could Have Been

2009-04-02T16:32:00.000-07:00

In 1997, on the 25^th anniversary of its inaugural service, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers International (ASME) recognized the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) as a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. According to ASME, BART's development “was revolutionary, embodying a futuristic spirit that produced historic innovations." ASME called BART “the prototype for most modern rail transit systems.”

Bill Stokes, BART's first general manager, credits Adrien J. Falk, BART's first Board President, for fostering the creative atmosphere that prevailed on the project. He called Falk "a catalyst for spirited, imaginative approaches to engineering challenges. He created a dynamic environment in which creative energy could soar. People could look for quantum leaps in innovation.” Most of the innovations cited by ASME, such as the engineering details in the transbay tube, were not readily visible to the public. However, people did notice the sleek trains. The Adrien Joseph Falk papers (72/39 c) included a "Photographic Record of Progress on Prototype Model for BART."

These photos illustrate what those BART cars could have looked like and show some proud engineers/boosters showing off a BART model.

Quotes taken from “National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark,” http://files.asme.org/ASMEORG/Communities/History/Landmarks/1496.pdf, 1997. Falk became director and first board president of BART in 1957, when he was 73 years old. According to the biography in the finding aid for his papers, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors recognized Falk's strong sense of civic responsibility when they proclaimed January 17, 1970, “Adrien J. Falk Day" to honor is contributions to civic life and community welfare.

-- M. Bryer

Ode to My Old Stocking!

2009-04-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

Journals offer glimpses into people's lives and personalities. Many of the journals that we've surveyed so far are not illustrated and I always look forward to coming across ones with sketches.

Here is an example of a poem and drawing of a sock found in the journal of Isaac W. Baker. It was written on the ship John Q. Adams while he was on a voyage from Boston to California in 1852.

The poem shows his sense of humor and I think his use of the pun 'darn' is great!

The poem says:

Ode to my old stocking!

Heeless and toeless work of art
Alas! thou'st getting old.
So worn and torn I scarcely know
The relics I behold!
Thy foot, sore scratch'd by many a nail
In many a place worn thin,
Indeed 'twould be a darned hard task
To make you whole again!

From the Isaac W. Baker journals, BANC MSS C-F 53
--A. Croft

Therese Bonney- famous photographer, cheese lover!

2009-04-02T11:10:00.000-07:00

When I ran across this collection in the stacks one day while surveying, I was immediately charmed by the diversity of its contents. The three main sections of the Therese Bonney manuscript collection (in catalog as BANC MSS 83/111) reflect three major focuses of her career: early fashion photography, war correspondence, and her personal love of and fascination with -- you guessed it -- cheese. I was surprised that a woman with such a serious career- famous for her work exposing the horrors experienced by child victims of World War II- would also be infatuated enough with cheese to capture several hundred images of it and to keep boxes of notecards describing different varieties of cheese (see picture above.)

While there are many paper documents and several photographs and a few negatives in the Therese Bonney papers held by our manuscripts division, I knew there were also a very significant number of photographs and negatives in our photograph collection (BANC PIC 1982.111--PIC). Photo archivist Sara Ferguson was working on them at that time, so I asked her to provide some details about Bonney's collection and Sara's project work overall.

Pictorial Stabilization Project Archivist Sara Ferguson’s primary role is to coordinate the move of Bancroft’s acetate photographic film collections into the library’s new on site cold storage facility and to establish procedures for their access. In addition, Sara has been identifying major photographic collections in need of processing and re-housing work, such as the Therese Bonney Photographic Collection.

Sara Ferguson:

What I love about working on this collection is being able to see the progression of Bonney’s life, from model to author and publisher to photographer, to see how her life experiences influenced the direction her work took.

The collection includes Bonney’s early fashion and editorial work in Paris, but primarily consists of her work throughout Western Europe during WWII. Bonney’s best known photographs illustrate the effects of war and exile on children, taken with the hope of securing aid for civilian victims.

However the collection as a whole shows her work was even more ambitious and far reaching. She photographed not only the effect of war on children but documented daily life in war time society. She recorded entire communities: their families, customs, and industries, their artists and politicians, their schools and their churches. Taken as a whole, the Bonney collection shows not only the horrors of war but the hope and perseverance of those who lived through it.

Sara does not mention the cheese, but she confirmed verbally to me that there are many, many images of cheese in the Therese Bonney Photographic collection in addition to the more serious matter discussed above. I personally find it heartening that a professional who used her profession to deal so eloquently with such weighty issues could also indulge interests of a lighter nature. It shows great dimension to her personality-- and I never knew how many kinds of cheese there were!

-- D. Miller.

(Left: Some of the "cheese files" in the manuscript collection. The blue folder at top is labeled "cheese correspondence.")

(Right: cheese labels on a folder marked, "cheese research." Triple Creme Brie anyone?)

Experiencing Borneo with Agnes Newton Keith

2009-01-14T14:00:00.000-08:00

Agnes Newton Keith was a UC Berkeley grad and a writer who wrote about her experiences living in exotic locations around the world, most famously in Northern Borneo, but also the Philippines and Libya. Keith, who had some harrowing experiences early in her professional life as a journalist at the San Francisco Examiner, married Englishman Henry "Harry" Keith in 1934 and returned with him to Malaysia where he worked for the Government of North Borneo while Borneo was a British protectorate.

Agnes lived with Harry in Sandakan, Borneo for five years. She wrote about her experiences and at Harry's urging she entered and won the 1939 Atlantic Monthly Non-fiction Prize. These writings, which were serialized in the magazine, became her first book, Land Below the Wind, published later that same year to great interest and much positive response.

Some of the publicity materials (1940) for her first book are pictured below.

Also pictured is an unidentified pencil sketch found among her papers which depicts a Borneo jungle scene.

The Keith's first child George was born in Sandakan in April of 1940. Two years later when Japanese forces invaded Borneo, Agnes and baby George were interned in a POW camp near their home, while Harry was interned nearby. The family spent three and a half years shifting between three different internment camps before they were liberated by Australian forces in 1945. In 1947 the Keiths returned to Borneo and Agnes told their story of survival in her bestseller, Three Came Home, which was later turned into a Hollywood movie in 1950. The Keith's daughter Jean was born shortly thereafter*, and Agnes wrote yet again of their return to a changed post-war Borneo in White Man Returns.

The Keiths had further adventures living in the Philippines and Libya throughout the 1950s and 1960s, experiences which she continued to write about in her later non-fiction works. Keith wrote her first novel in 1972 after the Keiths had retired to British Columbia, and she completed her last book in 1975. Remnants of her life abroad that surface in the Bancroft's collection include the daily diaries that were direct sources for her books as well as hundreds of unidentified but nonetheless fascinating photographs.

The Agnes Newton Keith papers are an intriguing (and charming, for this archivist!) look at exotic parts of the globe from a mid-20th century American woman's perspective. They can be requested through the Bancroft off-site request system using title Agnes Newton Kieth Papers and call number Banc MSS 86/161.

-- D. Miller.

* A correction was provided by Jill, a site visitor: "Agnes' daughter Alison Jean was born when Agnes was about 26 years old ( probably within the period of her first marriage which did not work out). In 2007, Jean and her granddaughter Leslie, attended a special ceremony in memory of her mother who would have been 106 years old on that day. Jean was 80 years old and it was her first visit back back to Borneo since she was 17 years old. (Refer to "The Tea House Chronicle" August 2007 -Sandakan) [Alison Jean] was not born in the 1950's as is inferred in this article." (This would mean Agnes Keith's daughter, her first child, was born in 1927.)

Chinese immigration cartoon

2008-09-15T11:13:00.000-07:00

The Bancroft holds several collections relating to the history of the Chinese in California, documenting issues ranging from Chinese labor to Chinese-owned and operated businesses, as well as evidence of hostility towards the Chinese. The following cartoon best illustrates the latter, demonstrating the multiple fronts of racial tension and inequality operating in California around the turn of the 19th century. The author of this cartoon, however, seems to be at least somewhat aware of the irony of the situation, as suggested by the caption. (All quotes and other punctuation are from the cartoon author.)

"Every Dog (No Distinction of Color) Has His Day."

Red Gentleman to Yellow Gentleman, "Pale face 'fraid you crowd him out, as he did me."

From Scrapbooks on Chinese immigration collection, Banc MSS 89/151c Volume 1.

-- D. Miller.

Survey at 6 months: Entering a new "phase"

2008-09-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

Phew! We have not had much time for blogging lately, and it's high time to catch up.

The Survey Team has been working diligently all summer to meet a deadline- surveying all of the collections that were formerly located in a section of the Northern Regional Library Facility (NRLF) before they were moved to the new and improved (and more earthquake-friendly) Bancroft Library building on campus. Finally, we have made our way through the materials that were housed in what was known as Phase 3; now, the process of moving these manuscript collections from Phase 3 to their future home in the "new" building, adjacent to the Doe Annex, has begun. However, this is only one part of the huge move that the entire Bancroft Library and all of its staff are undertaking over the next few months; see the Bancroft Library events page for more information.

So far, in its approximately 6 1/2 months of surveying-- as calculated by resident surveyors, data masters, and number crunchers extraordinaire, Amy and Elia-- the survey team has:

* Completely or partially surveyed almost 11,000 collections, including many single-item collections as well as large, multiple carton collections.

* Surveyed nearly 5,000 linear feet.

* Added nearly 7,000 new collection records to the existing collection management database.

That's cause for a little celebration! (And big thanks to our fearless project leader, Teresa Mora, who surveyed several large collections to help us meet our deadline.) But we are most certainly not finished; after all, the Bancroft has been collecting historic archival materials for over a century. The survey team will henceforth be working on a new "phase" of the project: surveying the bulk of the manuscript collections, which are permanently housed at the NRLF. And just in case that sounds like a piece of cake, that's an estimated footage count of over 45,000 linear feet still to survey! We may anticipate slightly less data entry to do from this point on, but we have much more ground to cover before we can say we are finished. (This archivist, for one, will be sure to fill her travel mug with strong coffee to be ready in the mornings and stock up on mittens for those frigid cold storage temps.)

So, look for a few more forthcoming highlights of the past 6 months' surveying, and keep watching to see what hidden gems we discover over the course of the next two years!

-- D. Miller.

Polygamy in the archives and the news (long)

2008-07-01T14:22:00.000-07:00

This past April, while the news was covering a high-profile raid on a fundamentalist Mormon sect in Texas, we happened to be surveying a segment of historical Utah dictations, many from Mormon church members and leaders. Some of these dictations discussed polygamy and/or fundamentalism within that church, which is ideologically separate from the mainstream church.

Since most of the personal narratives were from men, I began to wonder about the women who participated in these practices, especially because of the news stories and recent controversy. At the end of the section of Mormon dictations, I discovered the remarkable papers of Mary Powell.

Writing to UC Berkeley English professor and author George Rippey Stewart in the 1950s, Powell conveys in her emotionally-charged letters a vulnerability rarely seen in donor correspondence. In some of the more touching passages, Powell-- at first showing much trepidation-- can be witnessed slowly warming to the idea of her collection- and therefore her memories- being available to the public at the Bancroft.

Following are some excerpts found among the letters; one letter in particular contains several postscripts, showing the intensity with which Mary Powell needed to share her story. Excepting the author, names have been changed to protect individual privacy.

Mary Bennion Powell, Experiences as a member of a polygamous family in Utah after the Manifesto in 1890 : Murray, Utah, 1952-1963. Collection number P-F 362. (Also available on microfilm.)

April 14th, 1952

Dear Dr. Stewart,
Have you had time to read the material I sent you a month or two ago (a continuation of the material sent previously -- the story of my experience as a member of a polygamous family)?
I have been wondering what you think of what I have written. Would it be asking too great of a favor if I asked you to write me some of your ideas regarding it?
I hope some use can be made of it, sometime in the indefinite future. If history is useful, my story should be. Of course I would not wish the bad things Aunt Joanne and Aunt Linda did made known as acts of theirs. If I did, I would be almost as cruel as they were. But someone might, someday, be able to teach the reading public a very valuable lesson; I can't help hoping for some such eventuality. Do you understand why? You must, since you, too, have the good of society at heart and have told some of your experiences and ideas in an effort to help people to be more kind and just.
May I hear from you as soon as convenient to you?
Gratefully,
Mary B. Powell
Murray, Utah

P.S. I would like to add a few items now to what I have already written.
For instance, I remember the pity in my mother's voice, once, as she said, "Poor Aunt Emily. Her husband married two beautiful young Danish girls when she herself was getting old, and all her children had left home. She had to tend the babies of the plural wives, and they used to talk in Danish all day as they worked and laughed together." (Aunt Emily was Grandpa Fellows' oldest sister.)
Father once said, "For forty years Fellows sulked in his tent, so to speak -- wouldn't go to any church meetings. He was angry because of how Apostle Joseph treated his sixteen year old sister Sylvie."
I stopped as I was passing through the diningroom and heard this. It was news to me. Father paused uncertainly, looking at me, but I stayed to hear what might come next. I guess he felt he owed me some explanation. At any rate, he went on, his eyes on my face, "Sylvie was married to Apostle Olen Joseph when he had many other wives. She said that he wouldn't live with any of them after marrying her. He took her with him on all his trips about the State. She was broken-hearted. She said he abused her."
I could stand no more. I walked quickly out of the room without speaking, as I usually did when other such things had been told in my presence. It makes me sick to think about it now. But I won't think of it anymore, since I am telling it to you.
Later I learned that my great aunt Sylvie had divorced her first husband, Apostle Joseph.

P.S. 2-
A few days ago, two schoolteachers from the city came, as is their tri-weekly custom, to buy a supply of fresh eggs from our son Jeremiah. The father of the older one, Miss Thomas, was a member of the Granite Stake High Council of the Mormon Church along with my father. I asked her if her father had been a polygamist. She said no, but one of her grandfathers had been. I asked if she believed in "the principle." She said, "Of course -- it was a revelation." I only smiled, as I feared she (and my husband too) would be annoyed if I pursued the subject further. But, to my surprise, she began to tell me about a funeral she had recently attended of a plural wife who had been a member of the famous (or infamous) Fundamentalists (of Mormon origin). She said it lasted two hours and almost the entire time was used in a defense of polygamy by sympathizers. Her [the deceased woman's] son was the most earnest speaker in the group.
Then she said that another schoolteacher, a friend, had made the statement, "Polygamy killed my mother. She died of a broken heart." This young woman was the daughter of William Scott Sr. of whom I have written before. Her mother was one of his two plural wives -- Anne-- a sister to her husband's first wife.
I add these items because if I don't, they will remain in my memory and may at any time start a chain-reaction that could drag my mind into the quick-sand of the memory of my life in a polygamous family.
May I be free to add others as they come to my attention?

P.S. 3-
And one comes to my attention as I am about to fold these pages and put them in an envelope.
I phoned my cousin Amelia a week or so ago, inquiring if she had a picture of Grandpa Fellows when he was young. (She has since sent me two magazines containing stories and pictures of members of the Fellows family - including one of Grandpa, stern and handsome in an army uniform.) I asked her if her mother had been happy in polygamy. (Her mother was Wynona Fellows Anderson- a plural wife of Pres. Jedediah R. Anderson of the Mormon Church.) She said, "Very happy, always." "Why," I ventured timidly, "do you suppose she was happy, yet my mother suffered so terribly because of polygamy?" Amelia's voice was smooth and unruffled, as I have heard my own when guardedly telling my young children "the facts of life," hoping they wouldn't be too deeply inquisitive.
"My mother was converted to polygamy and your mother must not have been." I couldn't go into an argument over the telephone, on such a taboo subject, so I said something inane and hung up the receiver. But before I did so Amelia added, "My whole idea in writing and publishing the story of mother's life is to show that polygamy needn't have hurt anyone, and wouldn't, if it were lived properly."
When I told this to Mr. Lee Smith, who came and sat by me, on a bus, a few days ago, he fairly snorted with indignation. "That Wynona Anderson! She had everything that money could buy, and a life of ease and entertainment. Besides, she wasn't a 'first' wife." I chuckled with agreement.

-- D. Miller

From Oakland to Siberia

2008-06-18T13:31:00.000-07:00

Over his career with the US Coast Guard, Oakland resident Clement Joseph Todd made seven trips to Alaska, crossing the Bering Strait into Siberia, between 1914 and 1923. The following excerpts and images of Alaskan and Siberian natives and landscapes are selected from a manuscript compiled by his wife from letters Todd wrote her and pictures he took during one of the journeys, entitled The Bear - the mercy ship : excerpts from the letters of Lieutenant Commander Clement Joseph Todd's three trips to Alaska on the Coast Guard Cutter Bear : 1921-1923. (Banc MSS 70/50 p). The letters are frank, evocative and often amusing, and the pictures reflect a rugged and exotic landscape few are able to view firsthand.

June 1, 1921. Unalaska.

One of the ships brought in some bear meat and we had it for dinner. It tasted like an auto tire. The doctor said he hoped the natives would not break the plaster cast he put on. Parhem (sic) suggested that we might make the steward make one out of pie crust which he could not break. Perham thought bear meat pretty good. He thought it had been fattened on Eskimos.

June 22, 1921. Siberia.

We are here for some shipwrecks. We picked up a sorry lot of pirates this morning. They have been wrecked and have been living on walrus meat for a couple of years in Siberia. I think one has scurvy. The men tell us terrible things about the Communists (sic) system there. I think it is a good place to stay away from...

The Bear at Emma Harbor, Siberia.

from letter of July 1, 1921. Emma Harbor, Siberia.

The American Museum of Natural History man landed some of his stuff here today and the Russians raised a terrible fuss and said he could not stop there so we took it aboard again. Then they objected to our magnetic observations and they didn't want an American war-ship in their port without permission of their gov (sic). The Capt. asked who was their gov. (sic) and they said they didn't know. He said if we were at peace we had a right to stay here and if at war we would stay anyway. We will clean our boilers here because we have to. the ice is drifting out of the bay and the water is very smooth. In it are reflected the high mountains, covered with patches of snow and ice.

Lubte Harbor, Siberia. This is a rock on which chunks of seal meat are suspended to be beyond the reach of the numerous dogs.

July 11, 1921. Off East Cape

...Tell the boys I am in the Polar Sea now near where Santa Claus has his toy factory. I shall try to get around and see him soon.

(Below) This man is a Siberian native. Siberians are called Chuchis (sic). They are happy but dirty...

Aren't these dear little faces- Siberian children.

(Part of Todd's journey was in the Bering Strait going between Alaska and Siberia; north of Bering Strait is the Chukchi sea. Some Chukchi, natives of the Arctic and SIberia, are pictured above. For more information on the Chukchi people see http://www.allthingsarctic.com/people/chukchi.aspx)

Your poor lonely hubby.

July 21, 1921. St. Michael's.

...Last night the army invited us all to some athletic stunts and Capt. Cochran said we better go to make a representation from the ship so I went. We had a little supper served by one of the officers' wives. What do you think we had? Brownies. I ate so many I was ashamed. Next day, the Captain is having a dinner for the army crowd and I am invited. I stood watch from 5:30 to 12 this morning. I am to blossom out into society tonight.

Aug. 2, 1921. Point Hope, Alaska.

... I have been chatting with one of the natives. Somebody gave him a quarter and he told me that man "was his very good friend." So I said I was his very good friend too and to demonstrate it I gave him a cup of coffee and some trinkets. He said his name was Killbear. We had quite a talk. ... He said he had to work very hard hunting to feed his children. I said I had to work very hard to feed mine too, but he seemed to think that a joke.

Aug. 15, 1921. Demarkation Point, Alaska.

... It is a beautiful night. We are anchored in open water about a mile from the beach right on the boundary. Between us and the shore is a lot of heavy barrier ice grounded. When the boat goes ashore someone has to go aloft on the ship and pilot the boat by signal through the ice... Tonight the ship is pitching gently in a little swell which jolts the masses of ice together and there is a tremendous crunching and grinding roar along the ice. A very full red moon is just over the mountains to the southward.

(Left) Here I am steering the boat through the ice at Demarkation Point.

August 18, 1921. Point Barrows, Alaska.

(Right) These are some aged Eskimos at Point Barrows. The woman is said to be over 100 years old.

August 1921, Alaska (possibly point Barrows).

Beautiful parka made and worn by an eskimo woman.

In the Arctic, Alaska.

To-Look cleaning polar bean skin in her hut.

The last letter in this series is from August 30, 1921. An entry from the manuscript's compiler and later wife of Capt. Clement Todd, Bernice Jameson Todd, indicates that "the ship after finishing at Unalaska sailed for Seattle and later to Oakland (in October) ... Clement and I met in Berkeley where we spent the winter together." Clement J. Todd made his next voyage to Alaska on the Coast Guard Cutter Bear in May 1922, where the letters continue.

-- D. Miller.

Frank "Pistol Pete" Eaton

2008-05-30T16:10:00.000-07:00

Frank Boardman "Pistol Pete" Eaton (1860-1958) was a cowboy, scout, author, Indian fighter and Deputy U.S. Marshall for Judge Isaac C. Parker (better known by his moniker, the "hanging judge"). When Eaton was a boy in Kansas, his father was gunned down by six former Confederate soldiers. A friend of his father's told him, "My boy, may an old man's curse rest upon you, if you do not try to avenge your father." It took nearly 20 years, but Eaton eventually tracked down and killed five of his father's murderers (the sixth was shot by someone else in a dispute over a card game).
Before embarking on his mission to avenge his father's death, Eaton sought training at Fort Gibson, Oklahoma. The 15-year-old repeatedly competed with -- and beat -- the cavalry's best marksmen in shooting matches. In recognition of his prowess, Colonel Copinger, the fort's commanding officer gave Eaton the nickname that would stick with him throughout his life, "Pistol Pete." Allegedly, during his teen years, Eaton could outdraw Buffalo Bill Cody, and he was reputed to be a quick draw into his nineties.
Eaton began serving as a deputy U.S. Marshal in Indian Territory when he was just 17; his territory extended from Southern Kansas to Northern Texas. Eaton settled near Perkins, Oklahoma when he was 29, served as sheriff and later worked as a blacksmith. He wrote two books about his life in the Old West and spun yarns for the visitors that sat for a spell on his front porch. He was eminently quotable. After a girlfriend gave him a steel crucifix that reputedly deflected a bullet during a gunfight, saving his life. Eaton said, "I’d rather have the prayers of a good woman in a fight than half a dozen hot guns: she’s talking to Headquarters." Eaton usually carried a loaded Colt .45 and often claimed, "I'd rather have a pocket full of rocks than an empty gun."
The photos below come from BANC MSS 71/5, Frank Eaton autobiography and related material. They suggest Eaton was on friendly terms with at least some of his Indian neighbors, but further research is necessary before any such speculation can be confirmed.

The Bancroft's holdings also include copies of Eaton's autobiography, Pistol Pete: Veteran of the Old West as well as materials used to write it. See the Bancroft catalog for more information.

-- M. Bryer

These photographs feature Eaton, his biographer, Eva Gillhouse, Rolla Goodnight, and a 104-year-old Indian chief and his family. The snapshots were taken at the Chief's home in Oklahoma in May 1952.

For more on Eaton's life, see, "Frank 'Pistol Pete' Eaton," Vertical File Biographies, Kansas State Historical Society,
http://www.kshs.org/genealogists/individuals/vertical/bios/eatonfrankpistolpete.htm and "Frank Eaton," Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Eaton

Illustrated Playing Cards

2008-05-30T15:43:00.000-07:00

The Jeffrey Schweitzer papers contain the mementos he collected from a number of international fairs. These include a nifty deck of illustrated playing cards from the San Francisco Mid-Winter Exposition, 1884. This particular deck of "Midwinter Fair and Pacific Coast Playing Cards" was manufactured by The Winters Art Litho Co., San Francisco/Chicago in 1891; they have an enamel finish. In addition to illustrations of the Mid-Winter Expo, the cards depict scenes from the Pacific Coast, from Washington State to Los Angeles. Bay Area scenes include San Francisco's Chinatown, Golden Gate Park and Alcatraz. The deck includes a card of the University of California or, as the card reads: California State University Berkeley. By the time Schweitzer graduated from the University of California in 1907, the campus he walked would have looked significantly different than the one depicted here as the 10 of clubs.

The Bancroft has a number of related collections. For instance, other images from the fair can be found on the OAC, in the Roy D. Graves Pictorial Collection and the Jesse Brown Cook Scrapbooks documenting San Francisco History and Law Enforcement.

-- M. Bryer

Map of the 1893 Columbian Exposition Chicago World's Fair

2008-05-27T16:26:00.000-07:00

Early in the survey we found a collection of scrapbooks that highlighted some of the world's fairs from the turn of the nineteenth century, primarily from an agricultural perspective. Charles Turrill, the scrapbook compiler and manager of the California exhibit at this fair, widened his collecting interests notably, however, when it came to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and Columbian Exposition, from which he collected a variety of documents and souvenirs. And how could he resist? From the debut of the Ferris Wheel and the birth of the carnival midway, to new innovations in electricity, early moving pictures, and other emergent technologies, this world's fair overflowed with captivating and awe-inspiring ideas. More than 27 million visitors came from across the United States and around the world from May through October 1893, and many of the wonders and spectacles beheld there in Chicago would come to have a profound impact on American culture.

The map below shows the physical vastness of the fair, over 600 acres of landscaped grounds, waterways, and several buildings. Due to its large size the map is best viewed in person.

From C-B 545, The "Charles B. Turrill papers as manager,
Preliminary World's Fair Exhibit of California, 1892".

Additional world's fair materials housed at the Bancroft include San Francisco at the World's Fair, Chicago, 1893. (1986; microfilm), 1939 World's Fair facts : Golden Gate International Exposition on San Francisco Bay (1939), and Hubert Howe Bancroft's 1895 Book of the fair; an historical and descriptive presentation of the world's science, art, and industry, as viewed through the Columbian Exposition at Chicago in 1893... and the Records of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco (BANC MSS C-A 190)

-- D. Miller.

Baby tooth from the Donner Party

2008-05-23T16:36:00.000-07:00

From the Charles Fayette McGlashan papers, 1878-1946, BANC MSS C-B 570.

This was definitely an odd find. McGlashan wrote a history of the Donner Party in 1902 and among several collections bearing his name we found these artifacts. Not only did these exquisitely packed little boxes contain a dozen or so tiny vials of earth and an odd tool or coin from the site of the Donner Party...

There was also a tiny vial of what looked like pink crystals cushioning, according to the label, a baby tooth found lodged in a log cabin at the site! Here it is in its box next to a silver dollar coin. It is very difficult to make out the tooth here, but it is visible up close.

Talk about scandalous finds! The tags tied to the items indicate that someone was selling the vials as souvenirs, and promised to later use the proceeds to build a Donner Party memorial. Whether the souvenir seller was responsible or not, today Donner Memorial State Park boasts a Pioneer Monument. The Donner Party's Murphy family cabin site, from which the tooth came, is also available to visitors. Although a human baby tooth is a rare find indeed in the manuscript archives, the housing of these items was truly beautiful to behold.

Some Donner Party collections that can be viewed at the Bancroft Library include the Patrick Breen Diary, BANC MSS C-E 65:15 (also viewable online through the library catalog) and Material relating to the Greenwood family, [ca. 1888-1967], BANC MSS C-B 966.

-- D. Miller, original posting date May 23, 2008.