Ode to My Old Stocking!

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!

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

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

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"

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)

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

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.