Descriptive Summary
Access
Access Restrictions
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Biography / Administrative History
Scope and Content of Collection
Arrangement
Indexing Terms
Other Finding Aids
Descriptive Summary
Title: Gibson Family papers
Dates: 1887-1980
Collection number: MS 6
Collection Size:
1 linear foot
(2 boxes)
Repository:
African American Museum and Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Abstract: The Gibson Family Papers encompass materials relating to six family members: Audrey
Gibson Robinson; Charles Nelson Gibson; Lucinda Ray Gibson; Lois Gibson; Maude E. Gibson; and Frederick D. Robinson. Papers
consist of clippings, biographical information, a scrapbook, photographs and assorted items such as postcards and poems collected
by members of the Gibson family. Arranged by name of family member and thereafter by format and date.
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
Access
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Access Restrictions
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Publication Rights
Permission to publish from the Gibson Family Papers must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library at Oakland.
Preferred Citation
Gibson Family papers, MS 6, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland, California.
Biography / Administrative History
The Gibson family can trace its roots back to the pioneering days of California. Charles Nelson
Gibson was born in Sacramento in 1879. His parents, William Henry Gibson and Lucinda Ray
Gibson, became part of the African American community of West Oakland in the late nineteenth
century. William Gibson obtained a position as a dining and club car waiter on the Southern Pacific
Railroad in 1898 and worked for the railroad for thirty years. Lucinda Ray was a descendent of
Nelson Ray, a slave who obtained his freedom in 1864 and came out to California to mine for gold.
Through his profits, Ray acquired enough money to pay for his wife and childrens freedom and
settled in Placerville, where he worked as a carpenter and blacksmith. The Ray family
moved to Sacramento sometime prior to 1877.
Charles Nelson Gibson followed in his father's footsteps and worked for Southern Pacific
Railroad for forty-one years, from 1913-1954. He was often called upon to work in private
railway cars of Southern Pacific officials. In 1901, he married his wife, Maude, and they had three
daughters, Thelma, Lois, and Audrey. Gibson's civic activities included membership at the First
African Methodist Episcopal Church of Oakland, the Retired Railroad Men's Club, and several
masonic lodges. His daughter Thelma Gibson Radden became a director for the Detroit American
Red Cross District, while his daughter Lois received medical training and worked in Oakland as a
surgical chiropodist. Audrey Gibson Robinson also worked in Oakland as kindergarten teacher at
Thornhill School. She married Frederick D. Robinson, a police officer from Washington D.C., in 1941 shortly before he would
leave to fight in World War II. Frederick D. Robinson died in combat in Italy in 1944. Audrey became very active at the Oakland
Museum, serving as Docent Chairman for the History Department and as Vice President of Administration for the Cameron-Stanford
House
Preservation Association.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Gibson Family Papers encompass materials relating to six family members: Audrey
Gibson Robinson; Charles Nelson Gibson; Lucinda Ray Gibson; Lois Gibson; Maude E. Gibson; and Frederick D. Robinson.
The papers include Charles Gibson's notes on family history, as well as biographical
clippings and photos. Lois Gibson's involvement in the Xi Alpha chapter of Zeta Phi Beta sorority
is documented in a scrapbook she compiled of clippings noting chapter events and national news.
This scrapbook also contains a few photos of Lois and her friends. Materials on other family
members are present in the form of clippings, photographs, biographical sketches, and postcards. The collection also contains
an eight page journal maintained by Lucinda Ray Gibson during a cross-country trip by rail in 1924, Frederick D. Robinson's
war letters to Audrey Gibson Robinson shortly before his death in Italy in 1944, and 335 photographs and negatives of the
Gibson family.
Arrangement
Series I. Audrey Gibson Robinson
Series II. Maude Gibson
Series III. Charles Nelson Gibson
Series IV. Lucinda Ray Gibson
Series V. Frederick D. Gibson
Series VI. Lois Gibson
Series VII. Photographs
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
Railroad travel--United States.
World War, 1939-1945--African Americans.
Zeta Phi Beta Sorority.
African Americans--California--East Bay--History.
Other Finding Aids
Black Women Stirring the Waters Collection, African American Museum & Library at Oakland