Robert T. Durden family papers

Title: Robert T. Durden family papers

Dates: 1870-1995

Collection Number: SFH 691

Creator/Collector: Durden, Robert T., 1918-2001

Extent: 1 carton, 3 document cases, 1 oversize volume, 1 oversize folder

Repository: San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center

Abstract: Family papers collected by a native San Franciscan of Welsh descent

Language of Material: English

The collection is available for use during San Francisco History Center hours, with photographs available during Photo Desk hours. Collections that are stored offsite should be requested 48 hours in advance.

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the City Archivist. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the San Francisco Public Library as the owner of the physical items.

[Identification of item]. Robert T. Durden family papers. Collection Number: SFH 691. San Francisco Public Library. San Francisco History Center

Gift, Robert T. Durden, 1985.

Robert T. Durden's grandfather Richard Jones was born in Eglwysfach, Denbighshire, Wales in 1842. He married Mary Williams; they had one daughter, Ellen (Nellie), born 1867. Mary died in 1869. Richard came to America (Chicago) in 1871 and married Margaret (Maggie) Williams there in 1874, and they settled in Oakland in 1877; Margaret had four children. Richard Jones operated Jones' Bazaar in Oakland for two decades, and was one of five original directors of the Welsh Presbyterian Church of Oakland (1890). Nellie married Irish-born David C. Talbot, and they had three children: Maggie May, Amy, and William A. Talbot. Richard Jones died January 10, 1919 in Berkeley. William A. Talbot was born in 1892 and enlisted in the US Army Nov. 3, 1917. He served as a corporal in the Infantry in France in World War I, and was discharged April 28, 1919. He died in San Francisco in 1982. Henry S. Durden was born in England and married Ida C. Kellogg of Wisconsin. He worked as a druggist in San Francisco. Their three sons were Frank (1886), John (1890) and Leon (1888), all born in San Francisco. Frank served in the US Naval Reserve Force during World War I. Leon, an insurance clerk, married Maggie May Talbot, and their son Robert Talbot Durden was born in 1918. Robert T. Durden lived in San Francisco for most of his life. Durden grew up in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood and attended Polytechnic High School. He worked as a clerk for utility companies and retired in the early 1980s. He was proud of his Welsh roots, and an avid theatergoer and collector of theatre ephemera, as well as a photographer of San Francisco scenes. He died in 2001.

This collection includes papers of a Welsh-American, Richard Jones, a proponent of Welsh culture in Oakland and San Francisco in the late 19th and early 20th century. Separately, it includes wartime correspondence of Jones’ grandson, William A. Talbot with family during 1917-1919, much of it written from France. The Richard Jones scrapbook, 1876-1917 documents Jones’ activities and interests (beginning with his time in Chicago) and includes some of his writings for Welsh-American periodicals, along with news of the Welsh emigrant communities in Oakland, San Francisco and California. Jones was a director of the Eisteddfod (Welsh music and poetry festival) held at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, 1915, and his scrapbook includes articles about his involvement in the Exposition and original photographs taken on his voyage to Wales in preparation for it. Many of the articles pasted in the scrapbooks are in the Welsh language, and some come from national Welsh-American newspapers. Some of Jones’ manuscript writings may be drafts for these published pieces. Many pages include James Valentine photographs of Welsh scenes. Chromolithographic advertising pieces for Jones’ Bazar (or Bazaar), Jones’ business in downtown Oakland, are collected in two other scrapbooks, and a fourth scrapbook compiled by Amy Talbot is more general advertising, chiefly trade cards. The collection also includes books about Wales owned by Richard Jones, and some early 19th century Welsh dictionaries. One folder of Francis S. Durden papers is accompanied by one folder of certificates, property records, membership cards, a letter, and other documents relating to various members of the Talbot and Durden families; two small drawings by Bernita Lundy are included. There is one folder of Welsh postcards sent to and from members of the extended family. Some of Robert Durden’s interests and activities are documented in a folder, Notebooks, which includes his list of every local stage performance he attended between 1930-1995. Another folder includes his file of the Welsh American Society of Northern California newsletter, Pethau Cymraeg, for a ten-year period. Cabinet card, carte-de-visite and other portraits of Jones, Talbot, and Durden family members, and a few 19th c. photographic views of Wales, have been transferred to the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection. Durden's slide photography of San Francisco views has been designated a separate collection, Robert Durden Color Slide Collection (SFP 42). Likewise, materials collected through his relationship with Antonio and Grace Sotomayor have been integrated into the Antonio Sotomayor Collection (SFH 682). For records of the Welsh Presbyterian Church of Oakland, see the Donna C. Davies Welsh American collection (SFH 686).