Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Gschwind / Swent, Langan, Waterman, Mendenhall, and Herz family papers
M1979
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
Department of Special Collections and University Archives
Title: Gschwind / Swent, Langan, Waterman, Mendenhall, and Herz family papers
Identifier/Call Number: M1979
Physical Description:
17 Linear Feet
(37 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1848-2000
Abstract: Personal papers of Langan and Eleanor Swent and related families, as well as material on mining and travel.
Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Eleanor Swent, 2013. Accession 2013-135.
Series 1. Langan W. Swent (LWS) / Eleanor Herz Swent (EHS) personal and professional papers
Series 2. Langan & Eleanor Swent correspondence (personal & professional)
Series 3. Langan & Eleanor Swent travel diaries, photographs, etc.
Series 4. Mexico - Guarisamey District History
Series 5. Langan Swent, Navy WWII
Series 6. Swent/Langan/Mendenhall papers
Series 7. Herz/Kimpston papers
Series 8. Gschwind papers
Series 9. Gschwind - Alice & Ru (Rudolph) honeymoon postcards, diaries, travel ephemera
Series 10. Photographs
Series 11. Miscellaneous
This group of related family papers primarily concern Langan Waterman Swent (1916-1992) and his wife Eleanor Herz Swent (1924-).
Langan Swent was born in Oakland, California to James and Ursula Swent. Ursula's parents were George Washington Langan and
Ella Mendenhall, and James' parents were Rudolph Swent and Amy Waterman Swent. Rudolph's last name was originally Gschwind
and was Americanized to Swent until he and Amy were divorced. He then went back to the Gschwind name and remarried a woman
named Alice Frazier. The collection contains letters and ephemera from their extended honeymoon trip around the world.
Eleanor (often referred to as "Lee") was born in Lead, South Dakota, where her father Nathaniel Herz was chief metallurgist
for the Homestake Mining Company. Her mother Janet Kimpston Herz was a high school geology teacher before marriage.
Langan spent his childhood in Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains where his father managed the San Luis Mining Company in Tayoltita.
After finishing school at Moses Brown in Rhode Island he worked a year at Guanacevi, then spent 1934-1938 at Stanford as an
Engineering major and 1939-1940 at mining graduate school at Cal. He briefly returned to Tayoltita as a geologist's helper
before conducting graduate work in geology at Harvard from 1940-1941. Langan was on active duty in the Navy during World War
II, mostly in the Mediterranean theater as an officer in charge of landing craft. He was part of initial landings in Sicily,
Salerno, Anzio and Southern France, then became group and flotilla commander landing infantry, and finally tought at an amphibious
training camp in Florida.
After the war, Swent began working at Homestake in an engineer training program. In 1946 Langan and Eleanor met in Lead and
were soon married. Soon after, Langan was offered a job back at San Luis in Mexico, working for Larry Morel, who had succeeded
his father James as head. Langan was assistant manager for seven years, and in 1954 the Swents moved back to States with Langan
as manager at Homestake working on ventilation and temperature issues. As Homestake began to diversify with uranium in Wyoming
and Utah he was transferred to Grants, New Mexico, and he became manager of operations involving uranium, with a special focus
on mine safety. In 1966 Langan was transferred to the home office in San Francisco as VP of Operations with responsibilities
in Peru, Australia, the United States and Canada. In 1984 Langan retired but remained a consultant to Homestake and the American
Mining Congress. Eleanor taught ESL classes in Oakland Chinatown for almost twenty years and became involved with the Regional
Oral History program at Berkeley, conducting many mining industry oral histories. Langan passed away in 1992, but Eleanor
continues to write and publish. In 2021, the University of Nevada Press published her book
One Shot for Gold, about one of California's most productive gold mines.
[identification of item], Gschwind / Swent, Langan, Waterman, Mendenhall, and Herz Family papers (M1979). Dept. of Special
Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, California.
Langan W. Swent papers:
Swent (Langan Waterman) papers at Hoover Institution Archives:
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt6p3038xf/
World War II diary:
https://www.history.navy.mil/research/archives/Collections/personal-donated-collections/pd-s/swent-langan-w.html
Uranium mining papers:
https://swcenter.fortlewis.edu/finding_aids/inventory/Swent.htm
Working for safety and health in underground mines oral history
https://digicoll.lib.berkeley.edu/record/217910
Homestake Mining Company records, circa 1888-1999
https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;titlesAZ=h;idT=UCb162813892
Eleanor Swent papers at Wellesley:
https://archives.wellesley.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/34106
Janet Kimpston Herz papers at University of Iowa:
https://aspace.lib.uiowa.edu/repositories/3/resources/960
Family recollections of homesteading in Iowa and Nebraska, 1850-90 : oral history 1987:
https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;group=Items;sort=TitleidT=AFU-7496idT=UCb107143033idT=UCb105679495idT=UCb107059289idT=UCb106947412idT=UCb107047251idT=UCb104109774;idT=UCb105565490
Collection contains correspondence, photographs, oral histories, memoirs & journals, mining company reports & documents, World
War II memorabilia, travel souvenirs and other material.
While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not
an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission
or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Mining -- History
Tourism
World War, 1939-1945.
Livermore (Calif.) -- History
Mexico -- Mining -- History
North Dakota -- Mining -- History
Uranium mining
Swent, Eleanor H. (Eleanor Herz)
Homestake Mining Company
San Luis Mining Company
Swent, Langan W.
Gschwind family
Langan family
Waterman family
Mendenhall family
Herz family
Kimpston family